WASHINGTON: Republican leaders in the US Senate, hoping to avert an Oct. 1 government shutdown when federal funding runs out, are likely to advance a stop-gap spending bill that abandons attempts to halt funding for Planned Parenthood, Senator John Cornyn said on Tuesday.

“Given the president’s opposition and Democrats’ opposition, at some point I anticipate there will be a clean CR,” Cornyn, the second-ranking Republican, told reporters, referring to the temporary government funding bill known as a “continuing resolution.”

He said he did not know whether the House of Representatives would embrace such a bill, however.