Thursday: Two days to reach a deal

{mosads}Increasingly, another continuing resolution looks likely, as time is running out. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) asked for a three-day continuing resolution, which would give Congress until next Monday to sort out the 2012 spending bill.

However, House appropriators have also introduced a 2012 spending bill, an effort to get around Senate Democrats who don’t want to move on spending first. The House Rules Committee has placed the bill on its website, a sign that a rule could be approved soon, which would allow it to come to the floor.

House appropriators provided a summary of the bill, which can be seen here.

Late Wednesday, Democrats were known to be thinking about dropping their “millionaire” surtax to pay for their payroll tax holiday extension. If they go that route, Democrats could look to pass that bill quickly, then move to a spending fix.

In the meantime, very little was scheduled for floor work as of Thursday morning. The House meets at 10 a.m. for speeches and noon for legislative work, and plans to consider a bill to reauthorize block welfare grants to states.

Members will take up H.R. 3659, the Welfare Integrity and Data Improvement Act, under a suspension of House rules. The bill reauthorizes the grants to states through fiscal 2012.

Aside from that, the House takes up four non-controversial bills that should pass easily.

The Senate meets at 9:30 a.m., but has no definitive plans other than a vote on Morgan Christen to be a U.S. judge for the 9th Circuit.