Senators have about a week before they’re set to vote on soon-to-expire Affordable Care Act subsidies. Most of them already believe the chances for a bipartisan breakthrough by then are roughly zero.

There’s no clear momentum for any plan that would avoid a lapse in tax credits that could raise insurance premiums for 20 million Americans. House and Senate members involved in the talks said Monday they are still trading ideas, and Congress is in the dark about whether President Donald Trump will roll out an 11th-hour framework for an extension, which could help provide a needed boost.

“Right now, it’s not on a fast track,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said about the chances for a health care deal.

Instead, the most likely outcome is that Senate Democrats put up a bill that has little GOP support for a vote, if any, while Republicans offer a competing bill of their own. And even those partisan proposals remained in flux as lawmakers returned to Washington from a weeklong recess.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), who has been a key figure in the bipartisan negotiations over a potential extension, said that while she still believes there is time to craft a compromise proposal before the vote, it “remains to be seen” if people are willing to move that quickly.

On a separate track, GOP Sens. Mike Crapo of Idaho and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana are working behind the scenes on a bill meant to serve as the Republican counterproposal to whatever Democrats offer, according to three people granted anonymity to discuss private deliberations. Aside from the unsettled substance of the bill, when it might be unveiled remains in question.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune and two other people familiar with internal conference discussions didn’t rule out a vote on a GOP health care plan next week but would not commit to that timing.

“We’ll see what the Dems want to put up,” Thune said Monday. “There’s obviously something that we could put up as a side-by-side, neither of which would probably get 60 [votes to advance], but I think in the end you would like to see if there’s a path forward on something that could merge.”

Some Senate Republicans don’t see the point in forcing a symbolic vote on a GOP counterproposal.

“I don’t want to take a vote just for the heck of it,” said Mullin, who spoke with Trump about health care last week. ”If we’re going to vote, let’s make sure we do something that’s going to be productive.”

Health care is expected to be the dominant topic at both Senate party lunches Tuesday. Democrats will use the closed-door meeting to talk through their options, which include offering a “clean” extension of the ACA subsidies — which few Republicans support — or an extension paired with GOP-favored eligibility restrictions as an olive branch to conservatives.

Senate Republicans are facing their own dilemma — and internal divisions — over which approach to take. Some, like Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska have backed an extension of the subsidies, but a chunk of the Senate GOP conference, to say nothing of their counterparts in the House, want to end the subsidies cold turkey.

Many Republicans, including Cassidy, are focused on alternatives that would structure federal health care subsidies around health savings accounts, an idea that Trump has also endorsed. But lawmakers agree there is virtually no time to develop and implement such a system before the existing subsidies expire, leading some Republicans to favor a temporary extension.

Murkowski said she is “very hopeful” about the bipartisan talks underway but acknowledged the time pressure: “The calendar is not necessarily our friend right now.”

Nor, for now, is Trump, who appears to be sitting on the sidelines even as some congressional Republicans are begging him to get involved and sketch out a health care plan that could help unite and energize GOP factions in the House and Senate.

The president appeared poised to roll out a plan late last month that would extend the ACA subsidies with an income cap and other eligibility restrictions. But the White House scuttled that plan amid a mountain of GOP backlash.

“I think without White House leadership, we’re not going to have a well received product,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who has backed a temporary extension. “If we produce something in the Senate, it won’t be well received in the house unless the president works his magic, which he’s very capable of doing.”

Thune said Monday he doesn’t believe the White House is “advocating for advancing anything at the moment,” while making the point that health care talks could continue past next week’s votes. Lawmakers increasingly view Jan. 30 — the next government funding deadline – as the real cutoff for a health care deal.

“I think there’s, you know, groundwork being laid that could end up in actually something getting done,” he said. “I just don’t know if it can get done by next week. That’d be a pretty heavy lift.”

Meanwhile, House Republicans are on a separate track altogether, with party leaders looking to assemble a suite of health care bills from three committees — Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, and Education and Workforce. Their plan is less about making law, which would require buy-in from Senate Democrats, and more about showing voters that Republicans have plans to address rising health care costs.

Under pressure from unhappy GOP centrists, House leaders are tentatively planning to put legislation on the floor before the chamber’s scheduled Dec. 18 departure for the holiday recess. But that could change. The Ways and Means and Energy and Commerce panels are holding listening sessions with Republican members this week, indicating their plans remain in development.

“We want to get it done as soon as we are ready to get it passed,” Majority Leader Steve Scalise said in a brief interview Monday.

Some GOP chairs raised questions and made messaging suggestions on health care during a leadership meeting Monday with Scalise, according to four people granted anonymity to describe the private conversation. One of the people added that there’s still “not a lot of direction” from Republican leaders on the topic, and even conservative Republicans are rankled that no firm proposals are being circulated widely inside the conference with just 11 scheduled session days remaining in the year.

“We’re nowhere on health care,” said one senior House Republican who was granted anonymity to candidly describe the situation.

Republican leaders are also under pressure from some House GOP centrists who are threatening to use a discharge petition to effectively force a subsidy extension bill to the floor.

One of those centrists, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, said Monday he has spoken with the White House about a bill he is working on and shopping around to colleagues, which would largely mirror Trump’s unreleased framework.

“It’s one of those things where nobody’s going to love it,” Fitzpatrick said. “But hopefully enough people are okay with it.”

Benjamin Guggenheim and Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday his offices in three New York cities received bomb threats via an e-mail titled “MAGA.”

Schumer in a statement said the threats were made against offices in Rochester, Binghamton and Long Island. In addition to the “MAGA” subject line, the emails alleged that the 2020 election was “rigged,” the top Senate Democrat said.

“Everyone is safe, and I am grateful for their quick and professional response to ensure these offices remain safe and secure for all New Yorkers,” Schumer said, reporting “full security sweeps” from local and federal law enforcement.

“As I have said many times, these kinds of violent threats have absolutely no place in our political system. No one—no public servant, no staff member, no constituent, no citizen—should ever be targeted for simply doing their job,” he added.

A U.S. Capitol Police spokesperson declined to comment, saying the department “cannot discuss member security.”

Congress is back. Welcome to the December of Hellth.

Lawmakers now have a mere 30 days to address expiring Obamacare tax credits and prevent health insurance hikes for millions of Americans. Republicans and Democrats agree success hangs on one question: Will President Donald Trump figure out what he wants?

Interpreting Trump’s intentions has gotten tougher since lawmakers left Washington. Early in the break, Trump appeared to be on the brink of announcing a framework to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies with new eligibility restrictions, only to pull back after GOP criticism. He then said he doesn’t want to extend the subsidies but understands it might be necessary.

Capitol Hill factions are trying to figure out what Trump wants and how to entice him to their side.

“The president has got to sign whatever we do, otherwise it’s a legislative exercise,” says Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, the Pennsylvania Republican who is drafting what he describes as a bipartisan proposal that would largely align with last week’s leaked White House framework.

The timeline as we know it — Though the ACA tax credits expire at month’s end, some lawmakers are looking at Jan. 30, the next shutdown deadline, as the real cutoff for a health care deal.

The Senate will vote as soon as Dec. 9 on an undefined health care proposal, the fulfillment of the bipartisan deal to re-open the government.

What’s in the works — Fitzpatrick and other centrists are looking to build bipartisan support for an extension of the subsidies with new income restrictions and other safeguards. Their efforts have loose backing from the Republican Main Street Caucus, whose chair Rep. Mike Flood (Neb.) endorsed the contours of the leaked White House health plan.

A coalition of House and Senate Republicans that includes key committee chairs are working behind the scenes on a range of possible proposals, but there’s no guarantee the GOP will fall in line or the lawmakers will produce a bill this year.

Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) says he is “working to try to find a pathway to get some bipartisan solution” — not a budget reconciliation bill.

As a fail-safe, centrist House Republicans are prepared to launch a discharge petition to force a floor vote on a subsidy extension. But they’re also trying to give space to the Senate to see if a bipartisan deal can be reached.

Democrats have yet to reach a consensus.

A group of Democrats including Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.) and Rep. Tom Suozzi (N.Y.) has been in close contact with Republicans including Fitzpatrick and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) about what could get bipartisan support. But others, including independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, want Democrats to embrace a sweeping health care plan that could be a rallying cry for the midterms but has no chance of winning GOP votes.

There’s widespread skepticism that Republicans will agree to any plan that isn’t fully endorsed by Trump. A significant swath of GOP lawmakers will simply never vote to extend anything related to Obamacare, according to three GOP aides granted anonymity to discuss internal dynamics.

“That’s the trouble today,” says Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). “You can have good-faith negotiations with Republicans, but it just doesn’t matter until Donald Trump weighs in.”

What else we’re watching:   

— What’s next for appropriations: House GOP appropriators aren’t yet ready to advance the two biggest outstanding funding bills — Defense and Labor-HHS-Education — and are instead rooting for a cross-chamber compromise on several smaller funding measures, with sights on enactment by month’s end.

Senate Republicans are also looking for a smaller group of bills that could get signed into law as they continue to pursue a separate minibus that would pair defense funding with Labor-HHS-Education and other bills, according to two aides granted anonymity to disclose internal deliberations.

Any appropriations bills finalized in the next three weeks would be ripe for hitching to a year-end agreement on health insurance subsidies, should one materialize.

— NDAA deal incoming: Lawmakers plan to release the final text of a compromise version of the National Defense Authorization Act this week and tee up a House floor vote as soon as next week, though House and Senate leaders still need to sign off on the final product.

Jordain Carney, Jennifer Scholtes, Katherine Tully-McManus and Connor O’Brien contributed to this report.