1) Everyone should buckle in for a hellish week on Capitol Hill next week…if not the week of Christmas itself….if not the week between Christmas and New Year’s.

There is no over-arching bill to fund the government - yet.

2) There likely won’t be a shutdown this weekend (although, as of this writing, the Senate has still not considered the House-approved stopgap bill to avoid an immediate shutdown).

3) And, multiple sources tell Fox they would not rule out the need for another interim spending bill to avert a shutdown just before Christmas.

4) Congressional Democrats are waiting right now for a counter-offer from Republicans on an omnibus spending bill to fund the government through September 30, 2021, the end of Fiscal Year ’21.

5) But Fox is told if the omnibus is not settled by Monday or Tuesday, the sides may have to assemble another Band-Aid spending bill to avoid a shutdown at the end of NEXT week.

So…

Where does that leave us with a coronavirus bill?

6) Negotiations continue behind the scenes. In some ways, they are no closer than they were in July. But top Democratic and Republican leaders have expressed a little more optimism in recent days.

7) However, Fox is has told that the bipartisan, Senate coronavirus plan is just “chatter” and is not a true representation of where the Senate Republican Conference is.

8) Many rank-and-file GOPers criticized the biparisan proposal this week. And, Fox is told that many GOPers still oppose the bipartisan proposal of $160 billion for state and local governments.

So, we don’t really see how this comes together.

9) A COVID package is probably going to have to be blessed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). But it remains unclear how the sides get the proper cocktail of votes to get something which can pass.

10) And Pelosi hinted this morning that Congress could be in session after Christmas to try to solve this.

We still haven’t even mentioned the prospective veto override of the defense bill. First, the Senate has to take up that bill.

11) That could come tonight, tomorrow…or maybe next week. But the longer it takes the Senate to process the defense bill…means the further down the road the House and Senate could conduct an override vote. That could be weeks away.

12) And, a potential veto override vote likely doesn’t unfold for a while. That’s because President Trump can hold onto the bill without vetoing – for ten days (Sundays excluded) before he has to either sign it or veto it.

13) A lot of the timing on the veto overrides will hinge on when the President sends the vetoed bill back to the Hill.

So in short, it just another macabre Christmas on Capitol Hill.