By Kerry Young and Alan K. Ota, CQ Staff

Some conservatives are bargaining with GOP leaders on Congress’ next big spending decision, with an offer to temporarily support a small spending bump and possibly even interim funding for the health care overhaul in exchange for their support on an agreement to punt final fiscal 2013 budget decisions into next year.

The negotiations suggest that Congress is more likely than ever to try to pass a continuing resolution well before Oct. 1, the start of the next fiscal year, sidestepping major issues until after the November elections and perhaps until early next year.

Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin of Illinois said senior Democrats are working to expedite the completion of a deal on the stopgap measure well before funding (PL 112-74, PL 112-55) expires Sept. 30. “There’s even talk of trying to work out a spending agreement before we leave in August. That would be a breakthrough,” Durbin said, referring to Congress’ five-week summer recess.

But an agreement to get a stopgap measure through the House will probably need support from conservative Republicans, and they say they may go along with a plan that would give ground now on spending in the first months of the fiscal year in the hope of deeper cuts later. “The media and the Democrats keep trying to say that Republicans are not willing to compromise. This would be a compromise position,” said Raúl Labrador, a GOP freshman who was elected with tea party support.

Betting on Republican gains in the November elections, conservatives in both chambers want to delay the completion of fiscal 2013 appropriations until the next session of Congress. Before conservatives last week began making this push, Congress had been expected to clear a stopgap fiscal 2013 continuing resolution that would last perhaps into December. That would give the appropriators in both chambers a chance to complete all 12 unfinished annual bills and give Congress a chance to clear final fiscal 2013 spending law during the lame-duck session.

It seems that leaders in both parties and both chambers want to get the fiscal 2013 stopgap funding in place without much fuss and also want to avoid the near-shutdown of government that loomed last year, unnerving many Americans.

“What I don’t want is to be in a lame duck, with a government-shutdown threat,” said Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., “And I don’t want a government-shutdown threat in September, which I think [Senate Majority Leader] Harry Reid is choreographing right now. It’s not so much the funding level, while certainly that is an issue.”

Although a three-month CR remains possible, the most conservative House members are pressing for a six-month measure, which probably would encounter Democratic resistance.

Reid, of Nevada, said he had not yet made a decision on the duration and cost of the CR and would be open to discussing a number of proposals that are being developed. “Any reasonable proposal they have, I’ll review it very closely,” he said in an interview.

An Assist From Democrats?

Democrats may have an incentive to take the six-month funding measure if it comes in at the spending level they have been using for appropriations measures in the Senate, which is higher than the House level.

It has long been apparent that Congress could easily clear a CR that reflected the $1.047 trillion cap on discretionary spending set in last year’s debt-limit law (PL 112-25), which represents an increase of about $4 billion from the current level.

House Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., has said Democrats would help Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, pass stopgap funding, as long as it was kept free of controversial provisions. Democrats in both chambers, for example, would reject a CR if it carried out two aims of the House GOP: cutting discretionary spending by $15 billion and blocking funds for the implementation of the health care overhaul (PL 111-148, PL 111-152).