By Nicholas Wu and Daniella Diaz

With assists from POLITICO’s Congress team

Democrats haven’t seen an olive branch from Speaker Kevin Mccarthy as Congress crawls towards a government shutdown. | Getty Images

TICK TOCK: The government will shut down in 5 days if Congress can’t pass a funding patch.

DEMS STILL WEIGHING THE COST OF SAVING MCCARTHY

It’s the question that Capitol Hill is obsessed with: What concessions would House Democrats insist on extracting from Speaker Kevin McCarthy in exchange for their votes to help stop (or end) a shutdown? And separately, what price would they insist on for voting to help McCarthy survive an attempt to end his speakership?

We’ve looked around extensively and can confirm there are plenty of ideas on the table, but top Democrats insist the conversation isn’t ripe yet. Rank-and-file Democrats have privately floated plenty of ideas on what they'd ask for – including a halt to the House GOP’s impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, which would be a total non-starter for Republicans.

Other proposed concessions tossed around: Extra earmarks, additional disaster aid, and more Ukraine aid, among other things. Still other House Democrats are convinced that there’s nothing McCarthy could give them to save his neck.

For now, Democratic leaders want to make one thing clear: They’re not even starting to talk about working with McCarthy on a funding patch or a vote to end his speakership.

“The only person concerned about Kevin McCarthy keeping his job is Kevin McCarthy,” House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.) told Huddle. “House Democrats are having one conversation: how to deliver for the American people. That means preventing a reckless shutdown and stopping devastating cuts to the programs they rely on.”

In an interview with Playbook last week, Clark herself identified several ideas for any future negotiation with the GOP as essential parts of the party’s funding priorities.

Waiting by the phone: There’s a real chance that Democrats will get a call from McCarthy’s side this week, especially if the Senate signs off on a “clean” stopgap funding bill in the next several days (see below for more on that). While McCarthy ultimately decides what to bring to the House floor, the quiet conversations that Democratic lawmakers have held for weeks over how to approach the end of the funding fight could suddenly become very relevant.

McCarthy on Tuesday pitched a meeting with Biden as one way out of the spending impasse. There’s a big problem with that — Democrats are still smarting from what they see as McCarthy’s betrayal of the funding deal made to get out of the spring debt ceiling crisis.

“Every Democrat on the [Appropriations] committee felt betrayed” by McCarthy, Rep. David Trone (D-Md.) said.

Would Democrats just watch from the sidelines? If McCarthy brings up a Senate-passed stopgap bill for a vote, he will likely face an effort to oust him from at least one member of his conference. And many in the opposing party aren’t in a mood to save the speaker’s job – recently some Democrats have pitched the idea of voting “present” on that question.

But the final call on whether to protect their adversary, most Democrats say, still rests with their own party leadership.

“That's a pay grade above my pay level,” quipped Trone.

— Nicholas Wu and Daniella Diaz

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NEWS: Five of Oregon’s six House members, in both parties, are sending a letter to McCarthy laying out the negative effect of a shutdown on the semiconductor chips manufacturing industry, which happens to be the state’s largest manufacturing sector. Read it here. 

GOOD EVENING! Welcome to Huddle, the play-by-play guide to all things Capitol Hill, on this Tuesday, Sept. 26, where we are happy to say it feels like fall outside.

MOTION TO EXPLAIN THE MOTION TO VACATE

House aides have reached a painful realization in recent days: There’s no quick primer they can consult on what it looks like to force a vote on ousting a speaker, even as the chamber lurches closer to that exact moment.

The trusty Congressional Research Service doesn’t have a report, or even a short memo, on the rare procedural move that conservatives are threatening to use to boot Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

That means staff — and members — are now scrambling to get guidance on the nerdy details of how the so-called motion to vacate actually works. Democratic lawmakers are especially interested in understanding the spoiler role they could play, and chiefs of staff in both parties are trying to brush up.

The big headline: MTVs have rarely been used and never worked. Speakers have instead faced threats or pressure and simply given up the gavel (John Boehner announced his exit eight years ago this week) – but the one time the House has voted on a resolution declaring the speakership vacant, it failed. That was back in 1910.

CRS did not respond to a request for comment on whether any motion to vacate publications are in the works. Time is short, because CRS operations would be steeply curtailed during a shutdown.

— Katherine Tully-McManus 

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SENATE MOVES PATCH AS HOUSE VOTES ON FUNDING 

The hottest text in town just dropped: The Senate’s proposed stopgap spending patch would fund the government at its current levels until Nov. 17 and include $4.5 billion for Ukraine (a turnabout from what was expected – remember, everything can change around here in an instant!).

Remember that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer already started advancing a shell that the Senate could use to move forward on that as soon as this week. More from Caitlin here. 

The House, meanwhile, is moving forward with spending legislation. Members will vote in less than two hours on whether to start floor debate for four funding bills, covering the Departments of Defense, State, Homeland Security and Agriculture.

A conservative sweetener you should know about: If the House passes that rule for debate, it would block the Department of Homeland Security funding bill from being sent over to the Senate unless the upper chamber clears – and President Joe Biden signs into law – the immigration policy bill the House passed in May.

The right checks in: The Heritage Foundation seems to be on board as a result of that add-on. The group emailed key Hill offices urging support for the updated Homeland Security bill, alongside a continuing resolution that incorporates the House’s already-passed conservative border bill.

— Daniella Diaz

GO INSIDE THE CAPITOL DOME: From the outset, POLITICO has been your eyes and ears on Capitol Hill, providing the most thorough Congress coverage — from political characters and emerging leaders to leadership squabbles and policy nuggets during committee markups and hearings. We're stepping up our game to ensure you’re fully informed on every key detail inside the Capitol Dome, all day, every day. Start your day with Playbook AM, refuel at midday with our Playbook PM halftime report and enrich your evening discussions with Huddle. Plus, stay updated with real-time buzz all day through our brand new Inside Congress Live feature. Learn more and subscribe here.

SCOOP: GENTLEMEN PREFER SUITS? 

We got our hands on a copy of the resolution Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is circulating that attempts to roll back the recent loosening of the chamber’s dress code.

It’s two pages and short, quite literally – dubbed the “SHow Our Respect To the Senate Resolution’’ or the ‘‘SHORTS Resolution.” Another thing we noticed: It only pertains to men.

For what it’s worth, we’ve seen several male senators beyond just Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman enjoying tieless outfits, or occasionally T-shirts, over the years – and just last week.

The resolution says that “business attire be worn on the floor of the Senate, which for men shall include a coat, tie, and slacks or other long pants; and.” But there’s nothing after the “and...”

In addition, the resolution would have the Sergeant at Arms enforce the dress code and require a two-thirds vote to change the dress code again.

— Burgess Everett

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Incredible timing … The Problem Solvers Caucus, which is currently maneuvering to keep the government from shutting down by searching for a bipartisan solution, is looking for an executive director, Nicholas has learned.

Congress is channeling Taylor Swift

QUICK LINKS 

‘There is life after the Senate. And it’s good.’, from Jesús Rodríguez from the Washington Post

Hill staffers' student loan repayment program will shut off during a shutdown, right as most other borrowers' debt repayment restarts, from Sarah Ferris and Katherine Tully-McManus

Government shutdown would put pay for over 1M military members at risk, Pentagon says, from Matt Berg

TRANSITIONS 

Blake Kernen will be press secretary for the House Budget Committee. She currently is deputy press secretary for Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.).

TOMORROW IN CONGRESS

The House is in session.

The Senate is in session.

WEDNESDAY AROUND THE HILL

10 a.m. Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) will host a press conference with Sylvia Mendez to announce legislation to name a federal courthouse in Los Angeles after Sylvia's parents, Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez. (House Triangle)

11 a.m. Reps. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) will hold press conference to introduce the Rape Kit Backlog Progress Act. (House Triangle)

12 p.m. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) on introduction of legislation addressing climate change, investing in workers (House Triangle)

1 p.m. Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) will have a press conference on the Banned Books Resolution.

1:30 p.m. Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Katie Britt (R-Ala.), and John Cornyn (R-Texas) will hold a press conference on the border. (Senate Studio)

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MONDAY’S ANSWER: Benjamin Wainer correctly guessed that the 1996 Presidential and Senate election cycle was the last election cycle Democrats lost a Senate seat while their presidential nominee was winning the state. (The state was Arkansas).

TODAY’S QUESTION from Benjamin: Former Vice President Walter Mondale, former Speaker Tom Foley, and former Senate Majority Leaders Mike Mansfield and Howard Baker have all served as holders of which office?

The first person to correctly guess gets a mention in the next edition of Huddle. Send your answers to [email protected].

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Follow Daniella on X at @DaniellaMicaela.

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