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The U.S. Congress, facing a Friday midnight deadline, toiled on Monday to finish writing a $1.2 trillion bill to fund the federal government through Sept. 30, as several thorny issues lingered, including funding President Donald Trump's border wall. (Cowan, 3/19)

The polarizing politics of abortion have burst into the congressional budget debate, overwhelming bipartisan efforts to help millions of consumers who buy their own health insurance policies get relief from soaring premiums. On Monday, Senate and House Republicans released their latest plan to stabilize the Affordable Care Act's insurance markets. It calls for new federal money to offset the cost of treating the sickest patients and restores insurer subsidies that President Donald Trump terminated last year. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 3/19)

A bipartisan congressional effort to shore up the Affordable Care Act was likely to be excluded from the bill, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) told House Republicans Monday evening, although Senate Republicans had been pushing late Monday to get it in the legislation. Sens. Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.) and Susan Collins (R., Maine) had hoped to include a plan from Mr. Alexander and Sen. Patty Murray (D., Wash.) to restore payments to insurers that offset their costs for providing mandatory subsidies to some low-income consumers on the ACA. Mr. Trump ended those payments last year, and many insurers raised premiums as a result. That meant people who don’t get federal assistance to help with premiums saw their costs rise. (Peterson and Armour, 3/20)

ObamaCare payments aimed at lowering premiums will not be included in the House’s government funding bill, in a significant defeat for backers of the effort. Multiple GOP lawmakers leaving a conference meeting held Monday evening to discuss the ominibus funding bill said the payments are not being included, in large part because of a dispute with Democrats over abortion restrictions known as the Hyde Amendment. (Sullivan, 3/19)

The Senate is considering holding a vote on adding an ObamaCare stabilization measure into a must-pass government funding bill in order to get lawmakers on record on the issue. The ObamaCare proposal is in serious jeopardy amid a dispute between the parties over abortion restrictions in the new funding aimed at lowering ObamaCare premiums. (Sullivan, 3/19)

A group of GOP senators and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden met with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Monday in a last-minute push to include the Obamacare subsidies, but were not optimistic. “I’m trying to make sure we get stabilization payments because if we don’t, the insurance premiums are going to go up dramatically. And our Democratic friends are not being helpful,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said as he left McConnell’s office. (Ferris, Everett and Bade, 3/19)

The “omnibus” spending bill spreading billions across all agencies of government was supposed to be released Monday night to allow time for passage through the House and Senate before a government shutdown deadline at midnight Friday. But as evening arrived, bipartisan congressional leaders remained locked in negotiations on several issues, and the eleventh-hour wrangling carried the potential to delay the bill’s release. “We’re trying to get to agreement,” said Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.), chairman of the House Rules Committee. “And this is where it’s really good to measure three times and saw once.” (Werner and DeBonis, 3/19)