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Throughout the day, nike running shoes  members of both parties played a game of chicken, seeking to force the other to give in as the deadline of midnight Friday approached. Boehner in particular faced a tricky calculation about how much he could compromise without losing support not just from his large contingent of tea-party-inspired fiscal conservatives, but also from social conservatives who were eager for a victory on abortion and other issues.

As Reid returned from the White House and briefly took the Senate floor, he said that the issues dividing the Senate and House were "extremely narrow," but that it was far from certain they could be worked out in time.

"I am not really confident, but I am very, very hopeful," he said.

Given the uncertainty and the short time remaining, federal agencies prepared to furlough employees and cut off most services. Workers, contractors and consumers scrambled to understand how a shutdown would affect them, and Democrats warned of harm to the economy. The two parties also maneuvered to assign blame to each other in the event that no deal could be reached, and neither side was certain that it could predict the political repercussions of a shutdown.

The policy disputes involved a handful of provisions. One would greatly limit financing for Planned Parenthood and other family-planning providers, in the United States and overseas, and prevent the District of Columbia from using its tax dollars to help poor women pay for abortions.

Also at issue were measures that would restrict the regulatory powers of the Environmental Protection Agency, a favorite target of Republicans since they took over the House this year, by preventing the agency from enforcing significant portions of the Clean Air Act.

The House voted 255-172 on Thursday to halt the Obama administration's program to regulate industrial air emissions linked to climate change, delivering a rebuke to a central tenet of the president's energy and environmental policy.

Nineteen Democrats joined in approving a bill that, were it to become law, would bar the EPA from acting to limit emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that the agency has declared a threat to human health and the environment.

The measure would also nullify a 2007 Supreme Court ruling that gave the agency the authority to issue regulations to curb those emissions.

The bill stands little chance of becoming law because a similar measure voted on in the Senate on Wednesday came up 10 votes short of the 60 votes needed to avert a filibuster. nike mens acg sandals 2011 Obama this week threatened to veto any measure that would hinder the administration's efforts to restrict emissions.

The parties continued to spar over spending levels as well, although they were not that far apart in the context of a $3.5 trillion federal budget. According to congressional officials, Boehner had proposed $39 billion in cuts to the current year's budget Wednesday after his bid for $40 billion was rejected the day before. Democrats took the new offer under review.

Top budget staff, after working through the night, returned Thursday morning with a proposed $34.5 billion in cuts, with $3 billion of that to come from the Pentagon. Democrats said they believed that plan put the two sides close to an agreement, with just a few billion dollars separating them.

Democrats said Boehner insisted that any deal also include some so-called policy riders, which they argued injected conservative ideology into what should be a numbers battle.

Boehner rejected assertions by the top Democrats that the policy divide was all that was holding up a deal.

"There are a number of issues that are on the table, and any attempt to try to narrow this down to one or two just would not be accurate," Boehner said.

Despite Obama's threat to veto the measure, the House passed a Republican plan to keep federal agencies open another week, to cut $12 billion in spending and to provide the Pentagon with money through Sept. 30. Republicans hoped the legislation, which passed 247 to 181, would show that they had made a serious effort to avert a shutdown and leave Senate Democrats and the buy Fivefingers Kso-Vibram fivefingers Kso onlineadministration facing criticism for cutting off money to members of the military serving overseas.

"There is absolutely no policy reason for the Senate to not follow the House in taking these responsible steps to support our troops and to keep our government open," Boehner said.

With the prospect that much of the government would cease to operate after midnight Friday, preparations for a shutdown began in earnest Thursday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.