When the clock strikes midnight, time will be up for Congress to avert a shutdown.

That's where we're starting The Seven from the Washington Post.

I'm Hannah Jewell. It's Tuesday, September 30th.

Let's get you caught up with today's seven stories.

Lawmakers in Congress are at an impasse. As the hour of reckoning draws near, Democrats and Republicans seem to have no path to avoid a shutdown.

Republicans have proposed to keep the government funded at current levels through November 21st.

Democrats insist they cannot support that legislation until Republicans agree to health care policy changes.

Republicans have rejected those.

Not even a meeting between Democratic and Republican leaders and President Trump yesterday could lead to a breakthrough.

After that meeting, Trump posted a fake video of the Democratic leaders to social media.

So that's not a great sign of progress.

Here's House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries laying out the Democrats' point of view after the meeting.

Democrats are fighting to protect the health care of the American people. And we are not going to

support a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the health care of everyday Americans. Period. Full stop.

And here's Vice President J.D. Vance with the Republican angle. We told them it was absurd,

and now they come in here saying that if you don't give us everything that we want, we're going to

shut down the government. We think that's preposterous.

We think it's totally unacceptable,

and we think the American people are going to suffer because these guys won't do the right thing.

The Senate is expected to vote again today

on the Republican-led funding extension.

It will need 60 votes to pass,

...