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Congressional Republican leaders returned to Washington this week with no clear plan for extending government funding later this month that risks shutting down federal agencies amid a growing outcry from conservatives ready for a fight over funding Planned Parenthood. The once-normal process of approving a stopgap bill that keeps the federal government operating on the previous year’s fiscal budget has become anything but routine during House Speaker John A. Boehner’s five-year tenure. (Kane and Snell, 9/9)

Congressional Republicans showed no signs on Wednesday of having a clear plan for averting a U.S. government shutdown in three weeks over funding for Planned Parenthood, though senior party leaders have made clear they want to avoid that scenario. As has happened before, a shutdown on Oct. 1 would likely rattle financial markets. But Republicans had little to say about this in their remarks about the women's health group and conservatives' demands that its federal funding be cut off. (Lawder and Dunsmuir, 9/9)

Congress is about to find out what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. Both Democrats and conservative Republicans are vowing not to budge from their entrenched positions on Planned Parenthood funding even at the risk of a government shutdown on Oct. 1 — creating a political showdown between the two parties that deeply appeals to their base and promises to make life miserable for Speaker John Boehner. (French and Haberkorn, 9/9)

Inside the White House, however, there is growing alarm that the congressional fight over the budget could result in the second shutdown in three years, after the government was shuttered for 16 days in 2013 over Republican opposition to Obama’s health-care law. GOP leaders in both chambers have vowed not to repeat that process. But conservatives led by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), a presidential candidate, have threatened to oppose a spending plan that maintains funding for Planned Parenthood. That has left the outcome uncertain as federal spending authority expires Sept. 30. (Nakamura, 9/9)

A loose alliance of businesses and conservative groups has urged Republicans to emphasize tax cuts in an emerging House GOP reconciliation bill intended to repeal parts of the 2010 health care overhaul and reduce the deficit. The outside groups are urging Republican to strike revenue raisers in the health care law, including a 3.8 percent surtax on wealthy taxpayers' investment income and a number of business-related taxes, fees and penalties. (Ota, 9/9)