It’s budget crunch time. Will the government stay open?

WASHINGTON—With federal funding set to lapse at the end of the month, preventing another government shutdown will dominate Congress’ dwindling legislative days.

Budget negotiations have been sparse and unproductive in 2016. Normal appropriations processes dissolved months ago, and Congress now has to coalesce around a short-term continuing resolution to keep the government operating past Sept. 30.

“This year has been a crap sandwich with an extra portion,” said Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va., a member of the Budget Committee.

Brat told me communication between lawmakers was bad early in the year, and things have only gotten worse over the summer: “I learn more about what’s happening with the budget from the press than I do from my colleagues.”

On Friday, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., will convene with other Republicans to decide how long they want the continuing resolution to last. Some in the GOP want it to extend beyond Obama’s presidency to keep him from introducing radical legislation before he leaves office. Others want it to expire sooner so they still have some negotiating power in December if the party loses control of Congress in the November elections.

Democrats came back this week from the seven-week recess decrying the absence of Zika funding. As the virus continues to spread within the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates it will run out of money to combat Zika by the end of the month.

The House of Representatives passed $1.1 billion Zika funding package in July, but it hit a roadblock in the Senate. Senate Democrats have voted down the bill three times, claiming it contains “poison pills” such as a provision to prevent funding for Planned Parenthood.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Zika is their top priority and Republicans should be ashamed of themselves for only allocating $1.1 billion and not the full $1.9 billion the Obama administration asked for at the beginning of the year.

“We should feel guilty about every child that is affected,” Pelosi said. “$1.9 billion is a small price to pay for the public health of our country and the individual well-being of our babies.”

Ryan told reporters Wednesday this has become a “wholly partisan” issue, but he expects Congress to figure out how to pass Zika funding before the month runs out.

But passing any piece of legislation will be a struggle as lawmakers continue to have divided priorities.

Alyssa Farah, a spokesperson for the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told me in an email impeaching IRS Commissioner John Koskinen is at the top of the group’s September agenda.

Koskinen met with several groups of GOP lawmakers Wednesday to try to ease the vitriol against him.

Republican leadership has been quiet about ousting Koskinen for allegedly derailing a congressional investigation into IRS discrimination against tea party groups seeking tax exemptions. But Ryan will assemble with other GOP lawmakers next Thursday to discuss the possibility of giving Koskinen the boot.

A few other issues will compete for lawmaker attention. On Tuesday, the Obama administration confirmed it transferred $1.7 billion to Iran to use as leverage for Americans to leave the country. The same day, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., introduced legislation to prevent such payments in the future.

“This is a precedent-setting matter that I believe deserves the full attention of Congress this month,” Rubio said in a statement.