House lawmakers have introduced a temporary funding measure to thwart another government shutdown, with hopes to move the legislation to the Senate and the president’s desk before federal agencies run out of money at midnight on Thursday.

The legislative measure, known as a continuing resolution, or CR, will fund the government through Dec. 20. This would mark the second continuing resolution to take effect since the fiscal year began Oct. 1.

The move comes days after the chairs of Senate and House Appropriations committees met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin also attended the Capitol Hill meeting Thursday, with Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., chairwoman of the House Appropriations Committee.

“With a government shutdown deadline just days away, this continuing resolution is necessary to keep government open as we work towards completing the appropriations process,” Lowey said in a written statement Monday after introducing the bill. She said in addition to a funding extension for agencies, the bill also includes a 3.1% pay raise for the military and funding to support the 2020 census.

On Sept. 27, President Trump signed a short-term spending bill that extended funding for government agencies at 2019 levels until Nov. 21. The measure included some “anomalies,” or additional spending, for special programs such as the 2020 census.

Lawmakers had signed on to the temporary funding plan with hopes they could work out a permanent deal for the 2020 fiscal year by this week. However, the spending talks have been derailed by fights over border wall funding and the impeachment inquiry launched by House Democrats in late September.

The House is expected to pass the bill on Tuesday and send it to the Senate for approval in time to vote on it before the midnight Thursday deadline.

Some Democrats, such as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, have suggested that Trump may refuse to sign the measure over the impeachment probe, which centers on claims that the president withheld nearly $400 million in U.S. assistance from Ukraine in exchange for political investigations.

However, some Republicans have dismissed the suggestion.

Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said the continuing resolution should win Trump’s support. Simpson said that while the measure could also include a new round of anomalies, it should remain uncontroversial.

“Of course I think shutdowns are always a bad idea,” he said. But “it would be a bad idea for the president to not accept this,” he added. “It’s just a straight CR until the 20th.”

Still, appropriators remain unsure about whether they’ll be able to reach permanent 2020 spending deals on a dozen budget plans by Dec. 20. Some are already suggesting that additional continuing resolutions may be needed.

Last year, a breakdown in talks over funding for Trump’s border wall led to a 35-day government shutdown — the longest in U.S. history.

An estimated 600 pro-democracy protesters are locked in a violent standoff with police at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University campus, according to the student body president. Protesters lost ground when police stormed the school; now some hope to escape, and others are asking supporters to come help.

Police have called on the protesters to surrender, saying they will be arrested for rioting. As clashes intensified, protesters shot arrows and hurled gasoline bombs at the authorities, and police used tear gas and water cannons. Police also warned that officers could begin using live ammunition rather than rubber bullets.

It’s the second time the Hong Kong Police Force has stormed a university in the past week, in an apparent attempt to root out protesters from campuses that the police say have been transformed into weapons factories.

“No one should underestimate China’s will to safeguard its sovereignty and Hong Kong’s stability,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in Beijing, according to the BBC.

Protesters set several large fires in an attempt to keep police at bay, including a flyover bridge that connects the school to an adjacent transit station and a nearby footbridge.

From Hong Kong, NPR’s Julie McCarthy reports:

“Fierce clashes locked protesters and police in a battle trading gasoline bombs and tear gas. Then came the ultimatum: Police told protesters there was one way out. Put your weapons down and leave or face the consequences. Those who attempted to slip out of the campus were met with volleys of tear gas and arrested. Others managed to escape, but not many.

“During the day, protesters inside issued an appeal tinged with desperation: Where, they asked, were the 2 million people who had marched earlier? Many did respond and converged on the area, only to find the university secured by riot police. Local media report parents of protesters are staging a sit-in, pleading for their children to be allowed to leave unharmed.”

Just outside the police cordon around the university, Hong Kong Civic Party leader and legislator Alvin Yeung and other democracy supporters are calling on police not to use excessive force in arresting the demonstrators — some of whom are minors.

“Hong Kong people fear that we are going to repeat another June 4th massacre that might take place in Hong Kong,” Yeung tells NPR’s David Greene, referring to the date in 1989 when Beijing used brutal violence to put down student-led demonstrations in Tiananmen Square. The Chinese government has said hundreds of people died that day; other estimates have put the number of dead in the thousands.

“We are trying everything we can to avoid it from happening,” Yeung says.

Concerns in Hong Kong were heightened when soldiers from China’s People’s Liberation Army were spotted leaving their barracks — unarmed and wearing civilian clothing — to clean up debris on the streets over the weekend.

The soldiers said they had simply volunteered to clean up the streets. But for many, it was an ominous sign.

Noting the soldiers’ public statements, Yeung says, “But this is a clear violation of the Basic Law [governing the territory’s relationship with Beijing] and the spirit of one country, two systems.

“If they say they could voluntarily clean up the street,” he adds, “tomorrow they could voluntarily do something else. And that is unacceptable.”

In roughly 24 hours extending back to Sunday night, police have arrested more than 400 protesters who were trying to leave the university, according to the South China Morning Post. Citing a police spokesperson, the newspaper adds that since demonstrations started in June, 4,491 people have been arrested, with their ages ranging from 11 to 83.

The leaders of Polytechnic University are pleading for an end to the violence. Saying their campus “has been occupied by activists and has been severely and extensively vandalized over the past few days,” the leaders said in a statement Sunday that protesters have damaged “a number of laboratories on campus with the dangerous chemicals inside being taken away.”

“Once again, we plead with all people on campus, including students and staff members, to leave immediately,” the school’s leaders say.

In another new development, Hong Kong’s supreme court has overturned the government’s recent ban on protesters wearing face masks. Thousands of demonstrators have been ignoring that ban, which was imposed in early October using emergency powers that date to the Chinese territory’s British colonial era.

The protests began as a response to Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s proposal to enact a law allowing people in Hong Kong to be extradited to mainland China. That idea was later retracted, but demonstrators are demanding more control over choosing Hong Kong’s leaders. They also want an investigation into police officers’ use of violent force during the months of protests.

Commenting on the situation Monday, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said in a tweet, “The tragedy of Hong Kong shows the world what the Chinese communist government is really all about. They fear freedom and will do anything to stop it.”

The House impeachment inquiry begins its second week of public hearings with the Intelligence Committee scheduled to hear testimony from eight more witnesses over three days.

Last week, Democrats launched the public phase of the inquiry with testimony from three career public servants: William Taylor, the acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine; George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs; and Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.

In what was at times dramatic testimony, the trio of diplomats recounted how private citizens, including the president’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, impacted the Trump administration’s posture toward Ukraine. Though none of the three was on the July 25 phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that set off the impeachment inquiry, Democrats say their accounts helped illustrate how Trump sought to leverage security assistance for Ukraine to secure a public commitment from Zelenskiy to investigate Joe Biden, Trump’s potential 2020 rival and the former vice president.

On Friday, the committee heard closed-door testimony from David Holmes, a State Department aide who worked at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. Holmes gave firsthand testimony about overhearing Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, telling the president in a July 26 phone call that Zelenskiy would do “anything you ask him to” and that the Ukrainian leader committed to “do the investigation,” according to a copy of Holmes’ opening statement confirmed by NPR.

Taylor revealed in his testimony that his aide overheard the call, but Holmes’ account was the first detailed description of the conversation. Holmes said that Sondland told him the president cared about only “big stuff,” which, according to Holmes, included the “Biden investigation.”

Here’s what to expect when questioning resumes on Tuesday.

Who is testifying?

Tuesday, first panel at 9 a.m. ET

• Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the top Ukraine specialist on the National Security Council. Vindman listened to the July 25 telephone conversation in the White House Situation Room and reported his concerns about the president’s mention of political investigations to the top NSC attorney, John Eisenberg. He said the attorney decided to move the record of the call onto a highly classified system that few could access.
• Jennifer Williams, a foreign service aide detailed to Vice President Pence’s office who listened in on the July 25 call between Trump and Zelenskiy.

Tuesday, second panel at 2:30 p.m. ET

• Kurt Volker, the former special envoy to Ukraine, who along with Sondland and Energy Secretary Rick Perry was part of the “three amigos” tasked by the president to handle Ukraine policy. He was on the list of witnesses requested to appear by Republican members of the Intelligence Committee.
• Tim Morrison, the former National Security Council aide who heard the July 25 call but in closed-door testimony told the committees conducting the impeachment inquiry that he didn’t view the president’s actions as illegal or inappropriate. Republicans say his testimony supports the president’s position that there was nothing improper about the July 25 call, and they included him on a list of witnesses they asked the Intelligence Committee chairman, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., to call.

Wednesday, first panel at 9 a.m. ET

• Gordon Sondland. Once a top donor to the president’s inaugural committee, Sondland has faced intense scrutiny about his closed-door testimony after he sent the committee a three-page amendment reversing his initial account. In that addendum, Sondland said he personally told a top aide to Zelenskiy that the release of U.S. aid to Ukraine was linked to investigations.

Wednesday, second panel at 2:30 p.m. ET

• Laura Cooper, a deputy assistant secretary at the Defense Department, who in closed-door testimony said that Ukrainians raised the administration’s delay of $391 million in security assistance in August. She said that she spoke to Volker about the issue and that he told her he was working with Ukrainians to make a statement disavowing election interference.
• David Hale, the undersecretary of state for political affairs at the State Department. He testified behind closed doors on Nov. 6, and Republicans asked for him to appear in the public hearings.

Thursday, one panel only at 9 a.m. ET

• Fiona Hill, formerly the top Russia specialist on the National Security Council, testified last month that she registered concerns about the parallel foreign policy channel that Giuliani was using to impact policy in Ukraine. She told investigators that she discussed her concerns with then-National Security Adviser John Bolton, who said that Giuliani was “a hand grenade that is going to blow everybody up.”

Is this the last week of public hearings?

It’s expected that the committee is wrapping up its public hearings and will begin the process of writing a report on the impeachment inquiry. Schiff sidestepped a question last week about whether Hill’s testimony would be the last open session but said the panel was working to “move expeditiously” while also working to move “methodically.”

What happens next, after the Intelligence Committee completes its work?

The Intelligence Committee is directed, under the House resolution setting up the procedures for impeachment, to write a report with its findings and recommendations and send it to the House Judiciary Committee, the panel that has primary jurisdiction for considering any articles of impeachment. That report is required to be released to the public.

What is the House Judiciary Committee’s role?

The committee is tasked with evaluating the findings from the Intelligence Committee. It is likely to hold hearings of its own as it considers drafting articles of impeachment. The committee released its own procedures that would allow the president and his counsel to attend any hearings, ask questions of witnesses and respond to questions. The panel could then move to hold a hearing to consider articles of impeachment. If it approves any, they would then go to the full House of Representatives for a vote.

What articles of impeachment are being discussed?

Schiff has said he plans to reserve judgment until he confers with his colleagues in the House Democratic Caucus, but he told NPR last week that any number of impeachable offenses could be considered — including bribery. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., echoed that argument, telling reporters that the evidence uncovered by the inquiry amounts to bribery. But Pelosi also said there was no determination yet on whether Democrats were proceeding with impeachment. Schiff has also said that the refusal of a number of Trump administration officials to comply with subpoenas for testimony and documents could build a case for an article of impeachment on obstruction of Congress.

If the House approves articles of impeachment, what will the Senate do?

Articles of impeachment are like an indictment. If the House passes a resolution with articles, it’s the Senate’s role to then hold a trial to decide whether to acquit the president or convict and remove him.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said that the Senate would move to the issue quickly but also that he had no idea how long a trial could last. He made it clear that he thinks both sides should be given ample time to present their cases. McConnell noted that the 1999 impeachment trial of Bill Clinton took two months, but he said that was “a totally different case, a totally different time.”

McConnell and Senate Republicans continue to strongly defend the president and argue that the Democrats’ focus on impeachment is a purely political ploy to undo the 2016 election. A two-thirds majority — 67 votes — is needed to convict in the Senate, so if all Democrats stuck together, they would need 20 Republicans to join them.

How can I watch this week’s hearings?

The hearings will be livestreamed on NPR.org. You can also listen to special coverage on many local public radio stations.