Good Tuesday morning, I'm Anna Palmer. And welcome to your Politico Playbook Audio Briefing,

sponsored by Goldman Sachs' 10,000 small businesses. And I'm Jake Sherman. Here's some government

shutdown intel you can use. The government does shut down the day after tomorrow, believe it or not.

Neither chamber has passed a bill. House Democrats plan to leave D.C. tomorrow for their retreat

on the eastern shore of Maryland. Here's what's going to happen. The House is going to leave D.C. tomorrow for their retreat on the eastern shore of Maryland.

Here's what's going to happen. The House is going to clear a bill today to fund government until

March 23rd while funding community health centers for two years and boosting defense spending.

This will pass because the Conservative House Freedom Caucus, which told us they would vote

against more stopgap spending bills, will support one. Meanwhile, the Senate is voting to move on to a full year defense spending bill,

something the House requested during the last government shutdown fight.

This doesn't get Washington away from a shutdown.

In fact, Congress is nowhere near being able to avoid a shutdown.

Here's what to watch for.

One theory bouncing around is that the Senate will take the

House-passed spending bill and attach some combination of a big-time deal to boost spending levels

known on the hill as a caps deal, a supplemental disaster spending bill, and an extension of a series

of tax breaks. The strategy is still in flux, but this would, theoretically,

make the stopgap spending bill attractive to both parties and help move Congress towards a

year-long spending bill. Here's the big question. Can Congress squeeze something through

that allows Democrats to bounce to the eastern shore for their retreat? It seems unlikely that their trip won't be disrupted in some way.

A government shutdown right now does not seem likely,

but it's not entirely certain Washington won't stumble into a second shutdown this year.

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