United States. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy made an appeal on Tuesday for President Joe Biden to embrace stringent border restrictions as a preventive measure against the potential fourth government shutdown in a decade.

McCarthy, a Republican, put forth a proposal that faces an uphill battle in resolving a high-stakes fiscal showdown, one that could result in hundreds of thousands of federal employees being furloughed come Sunday. The President, along with his Democratic counterparts who hold the reins in the Senate, has already dismissed the Republican border initiatives.

With just five days remaining before the deadline, both chambers of Congress are charting distinctly different courses of action.

In the Senate, preparations are underway for a vote on a bipartisan spending bill designed to maintain government operations beyond the expiration of current funding at midnight on Saturday (0400 GMT Sunday). This would grant negotiators more time to reach a consensus on full-year spending allocations.

Conversely, McCarthy is gearing up to introduce a stopgap spending bill, which, if enacted, would recommence the construction of the U.S.-Mexico border wall—a hallmark policy from the tenure of former President Donald Trump. Simultaneously, it seeks to impose stricter immigration policies by the US government.