WASHINGTON — House GOP and Biden administration negotiators were closing in on a fiscal 2024 Homeland Security spending deal Monday, even as agencies face a potential brief appropriations lapse this weekend with time running tight.

Appropriators will need time to put the finishing touches on the Homeland Security bill following the White House’s last-second intervention over the weekend. Sources close to the talks aren’t ruling out a brief partial shutdown, though they are minimizing the potential effects of such a lapse given how close negotiators are to a deal and the likely short duration of any shutdown.

Lawmakers could pass a short-term stopgap bill to keep agencies operating for a few days, though sources say appropriators are not yet working on that patch. And lawmakers’ desire to start their two-week Easter recess on time — and catch the start of March Madness this weekend — could inspire quicker action.

Once final agreement on the DHS measure is reached, appropriators will need time to finish writing it, do their typical “readout” or line-by-line review, and then finish putting the final pieces of the bill together, known as “laying in.” And the Congressional Budget Office would still need to score it to measure the budgetary impact and whether it adheres to statutory spending caps.

As a result, the formal posting of the final six-bill package now could slip to as late as Wednesday, sources familiar with the state of play said.

If Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., adheres to his chamber’s 72-hour review window before the vote — likely to be on suspension of the rules, requiring two-thirds support — that could push off the House vote until Saturday. And then given Senate procedural hoops, including at least one potential cloture vote, it could be Monday before the package heads to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.

Landing the plane

The package was on a faster track until Saturday.

Appropriators had been working on a full-year continuing resolution for the Homeland Security measure after talks fell apart last week. But in a dramatic shift after White House intervention, lawmakers pivoted back to a full-year bill late Sunday.

Top White House aides including Jeff Zients, Biden’s chief of staff, and Steve Ricchetti, counselor to the president, pressed Hill negotiators to abandon the adjusted stopgap measure under consideration. They argued that funding “anomalies,” or targeted increases for priority accounts, wouldn’t be enough given the scope of the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.

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