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Good morning, Playbookers. I'm Playbook editor Mike DeBonis. It's Monday, September 11th.

What's driving the day in Washington is the clock, which continues to tick-tock towards October 1st,

when the federal government will shut down unless Congress can get its act together

and figure out a short-term patch. We're going to start figuring out whether that's possible

this week, with the House returning to town tomorrow after a six-week recess. Hardline

conservative Republicans are threatening a rebellion unless spending is slashed and key policy

parties that Democrats vehemently oppose are written into appropriations legislation.

The central figure in all this is House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who is facing conservative cause for his ouster if he does a deal with Democrats to keep the government open.

You can read a whole lot more about this today in Politico, where our Sarah Ferris and Olivia Beavers have a deep

dive on the rollicking currents that McCarthy is navigating, and in Playbook, where our Rachel Bade

has even more, including an interview with one of McCarthy's toughest critics, Congressman Chip Roy of Texas.

And joining me now is Rachel to discuss this crazy month ahead.

Hey, Rachel.

Good morning, Mike.

So let's start by talking about Kevin McCarthy.

How exactly is he hoping to handle this month ahead, this looming shutdown deadline?

What is he telling his members about what he is hoping will happen?

So a few weeks ago, McCarthy encourages members on a call during August recess to hold all their

major policy demands for later in the year.

He basically suggested that Republicans need to pass a short-term CR to keep the government

open on October 1st, and that later in the year, when they're actually marking up long-term spending bills, that's where to have, that's where they should be having

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