After a fierce lobbying push by President Donald Trump and GOP leaders, Congress is on the cusp of ending the partial government shutdown in the next 24 hours.

Key House conservative holdouts appeared ready to stand down after threatening to catapult Washington into a bitter standoff over a sprawling government spending bill that funds three-quarters of federal agencies. It took Trump personally twisting the arms of GOP lawmakers — and even bringing some to the White House — to support the bill for those Republicans to signal a willingness to back down.

Multiple GOP sources told CNN they expected Trump’s sales pitch to be successful in the end, since few members are willing to defy the president on a direct ask. But the threat was enough to send Johnson scrambling to meet with key Republican as he sought to lock down the votes in his unruly conference for the government funding deal – loathed by some Republicans – that Trump struck with Senate Democrats.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican, and roughly a half-dozen other conservatives had been vowing to block the funding bill if Speaker Mike Johnson didn’t agree to attach their bill, which would tighten restrictions for voting in the US, including requiring proof of citizenship.

But by Monday night, the congresswoman and at least one of those hardliners, Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee, said that after meeting with Trump, they’re now leaning in favor of advancing the bill to reopen the government.

“Based on our discussion right now, we’re moving towards” voting in favor of advancing the funding package, Luna told CNN.

Congress now appears on a path to avoiding a prolonged shutdown, though Johnson could still face lingering concerns from other members on Tuesday as he faces some of the toughest math in the history of the House. House GOP leaders can only afford to lose a single Republican vote, since no Democrats are expected to back the majority party’s procedural vote.

One Republican, Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida, told CNN on Monday night that he would require the voter ID law to be attached to the funding bill before he could back leadership on a key procedural vote Tuesday

“My position has been loud and clear,” Donalds told CNN. Asked about the implications of a lengthy shutdown, Donalds said: “Talk to the Senate. The Senate’s the one that screwed this up, not us.”

But GOP leaders believe they will be successful and could end the partial shutdown as soon as Tuesday, proving yet again the ability of Trump and Johnson to win over their hardline conservative bloc amid mounting tensions with the base.

The House Rules Committee took a critical step Monday evening with the support of key conservatives to advance the government funding bill to the floor.

Trump and GOP leaders have made it known that they do not support linking the voter ID push to the current funding package, which would run into a dead end in the Senate, prolonging the shutdown.

“This is a funding package right now, and I don’t think we need to be playing games with government funding,” Johnson told reporters Monday afternoon when asked about adding the voter ID push.

Trump has supported a push for stricter voter ID laws, declaring recently that “rigged elections are common in the U.S.,” pointing to his own loss in 2020. But he wrote in a post on Truth Social on the eve of the critical House vote that he wants to adopt the government funding bill with “NO CHANGES” and sign it quickly to avoid “another long, pointless, and destructive Shutdown.”

Behind the scenes, Trump was phoning individual House Republicans to convince them to back the funding bill, Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole of Oklahoma told CNN.

“So he’s working hard. He wants this bill passed,” the senior Republican said.

In phone calls across the GOP conference, Luna had urged fellow Republicans to vote with her to tank what’s known as the “rule” vote – which is expected to come up Tuesday ahead of a final vote – unless her voting legislation was added to the must-pass package, according to a person with direct knowledge of one of her calls.

But Luna and Burchett later told CNN they would likely drop their opposition after meeting with Trump on Monday and getting commitments from senators to help move the voting bill in the Senate.

“There is something called a standing filibuster that would effectively allow Senator (Majority Leader John) Thune to put voter ID on the floor of the Senate,” Luna said at the Capitol on Monday evening. She said discussions over using that maneuver were going well and Thune was “considering” that tack.

The congresswoman and Burchett said they personally spoke with the president earlier in the day Monday. The president, she said, remained “very consistent” on wanting Congress to pass the voting bill.

Federal law already requires a person to be a citizen to vote in a US election but Luna and others have argued it is not properly enforced. Critics counter that the bill creates unnecessary hurdles that will wrongfully disenfranchise legitimate voters.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune issued a rare directive to his House counterparts, urging them to fund the government without additional conservative asks.

But once Congress votes to reopen the government, lawmakers will confront a far more complex problem. Both parties must come to a deal on how to rein in federal immigration enforcement officers, or face the prospect of another DHS shutdown in February. (CNN)

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