Will there be a government shutdown over funding to Planned Parenthood?

Some news sources think that is where Congress is headed. The Republican rank and file seems to angling for one, the leadership seems resistant, but that may lead to a move against them - John Boehner's speakership may be on the line

- Politico: Countdown to shutdown begins: It's not clear how Republican leaders plan to resolve the standoff over Planned Parenthood funding.

Congress returned from its long summer vacation Tuesday to an all-out, three-week sprint to avert a government shutdown – and no apparent plan yet to quell the conservative rebellion over Planned Parenthood that has dramatically increased the odds of a closure.

The mad dash – just 11 legislative work days left to solve the shutdown crisis, in between major votes on the Iran nuclear deal and the first-ever papal address to a joint session of Congress – presents a major test for Republican leaders in both chambers who vowed to end crisis-driven legislating.

The smart money is on Congress doing what it typically does when it’s up against a deadline: Find a short-term fix and delay the fight for later. But the dynamics are so fluid and passions high that no one truly knows how it will wind up on Sept. 30, the final day of the fiscal year and last day to extend funding or have the government close its doors.

- National Journal: Republican Leaders’ Stressful September: They’ve already lost the Iran fight, and more infighting over Planned Parenthood funding awaits.

Repub­lic­an Con­gres­sion­al lead­ers are fa­cing a stress­ful Septem­ber, burdened with a best-case out­come of main­tain­ing the status quo in gov­ern­ment fund­ing and a worst-case out­come of an­oth­er gov­ern­ment shut­down.

Adding to their head­aches, a flurry of Demo­crat­ic sen­at­ors pledged late last week to sup­port the Ir­an deal, elim­in­at­ing the pos­sib­il­ity that Con­gress could over­ride a pres­id­en­tial veto of a res­ol­u­tion dis­ap­prov­ing of the mul­tina­tion­al deal.

And as dis­sat­is­fac­tion with their lead­er­ship peaks on the right, it re­mains un­clear what con­sequences could arise for top Re­pub­lic­ans in they fail to de­liv­er on sought-after con­ser­vat­ive de­mands, par­tic­u­larly strip­ping Planned Par­ent­hood of roughly $500 mil­lion in an­nu­al fed­er­al fund­ing.

- The Atlantic: The Plot Against Planned Parenthood and John Boehner.

It has become an annual harbinger of autumn in this era of divided government: The calendar swings from August to September, Congress returns from its long summer break, and Republican leaders try to figure out how to keep the federal lights on past the end of the month.

In 2013, John Boehner gave in to Senator Ted Cruz and his conservative allies in the House, and the government shut down for two weeks in a failed fight over Obamacare. A year ago, Boehner and Mitch McConnell succeeded in twiceputting off a losing battle over immigration until after they could wrest control of the Senate from the Democrats.

With federal funding set to expire on September 30, conservatives are once again demanding a standoff that Boehner and McConnell are hell-bent on avoiding. This time around, the issue that might prevent an orderly—if temporary—extension of funding is Planned Parenthood. Along with Cruz, House conservativesinsist that any spending bill sent to President Obama’s desk explicitly prohibit taxpayer dollars from going to the women’s health organization, which has come under fire over undercover videos that purportedly show its officials discussing the sale of fetal tissue. Democrats have rallied around Planned Parenthood, and an effort to ax its approximately $500 million in annual funding is likely to fall short, either by running into a filibuster in the Senate or a presidential veto.