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Mr. McConnell’s concerns about the moderates’ compromise was earlier reported by Politico, and was relayed on the condition of anonymity by a senior Democrat familiar with the conversation between the senator’s aides and other congressional leaders. Mr. McConnell’s office declined to comment, though he has made it clear that he was cool to the compromise, instead urging his colleagues to drop both the liability shield and the state and local aid in favor of a much narrower package.

“I think the question I have is, will we say, ‘Hey, look, we were successful in getting $908 billion, getting people together to that number,’” said Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah and one of the lawmakers involved in the current bipartisan discussions. “We’ve solved a whole series of elements — maybe on state and local, the liability, we wait, given the time frame, until next year.”

But top Democrats have rejected the suggestion from Mr. McConnell and other Republicans that Congress put aside those two issues. They have also panned a $916 billion alternative that the White House presented on Tuesday. That proposal, outlined by Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, failed to revive lapsed federal supplemental jobless payments in favor of a round of $600 stimulus checks, half the amount approved this year.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California noted on Thursday that Congress had previously stayed through Christmas to haggle over unfinished spending legislation. “We have to have a bill,” she told reporters at her weekly news conference, “and we cannot go home without it.”

The prospects for a one-week stopgap government funding bill intended to avert a shutdown on Friday and buy additional time for negotiations were unclear in the Senate on Thursday, as lawmakers struggled to secure consensus on a sweeping military policy bill and the spending measure.