House Republican tax writers were clamming up Wednesday about their tax plans, a sign that negotiations were getting serious as they prepared to go into a second day of close-door talks.

“I’m not talking about anything associated with our ongoing deliberations,” said the normally chatty Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah). “We’re in a new phase — everything was hypothetical three months ago.”

“I hope you’re not finding anybody who is willing to talk.”

Moore’s comments came as lawmakers on the Ways and Means Committee try to hash out their draft of a plan to address the expiration of some 40 expiring tax credits, along with additional tax proposals offered by President Donald Trump.

They met Monday for a lengthy policy session, amid Chair Jason Smith’s desire to get a bill — which would also include Trump’s energy, border and defense priorities — to the president’s desk quickly. The Senate, though, is just getting started.

Negotiations in the House have gotten far enough along that Ways and Means has begun eyeing when they might be able to unveil their plans and bring it before the committee to formally approve.

Some Republicans hope committee action would help generate momentum in other committees despite major questions over lawmakers’ stomach for spending cuts that are supposed to accompany their tax plans, and even though negotiations with the Senate over how to proceed are off to a creaky start.

Senate Finance Committee Republicans will meet with President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday to discuss the path forward for crafting legislation to enact broad swaths of the administration’s domestic agenda.

“The president has invited us to join him tomorrow at the White House,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, who sits on the panel, told reporters Wednesday.

One Republican granted anonymity to discuss the agenda for a private meeting said one topic of the conversation will be on whether to use the so-called current policy baseline to extend Trump’s 2017 tax cuts. That accounting method would make it appear as though extending those tax cuts costs nothing. But it’s a controversial tactic among fiscal conservatives who worry that leadership is using it to hide the cost of the party-line bill they want to pass through budget reconciliation — and reduce the need for steep spending cuts to finance that bill.

The meeting also will focus on larger tax policy priorities, the Republican said. Senate Republicans, after initially favoring a two-track approach through reconciliation that would front-load border security, defense and energy policies in one bill before focusing on tax cuts in the next, are now moving towards embracing the House GOP’s approach, which would roll those policies with tax cuts into a single piece of legislation.

Leaders of both chambers are expected to discuss how to resolve differences between their budget resolutions in the coming weeks. The House and Senate each needs to pass the same resolution before the reconciliation process can begin in earnest.

Republican members of the House Ways and Means Committee are holding another all-day meeting Wednesday to determine what will go into the tax portion of the reconciliation bill. The tax writers kicked off deliberations on Monday with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.

Senate Democrats are grappling with whether or not to support a House GOP funding patch less than three days before a possible government shutdown.

With 52 Republicans expected to back the House-passed stopgap, eight Democrats would need to help advance it to a final Senate vote. So far only one — Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania — has indicated he’ll support it. Other key swing voters are on the fence.

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) told reporters Wednesday that he remains undecided on the seven-month funding bill, which passed the House mostly along party lines Tuesday. Asked when he would make a decision, he quipped he’d make up his mind before the end of the Senate vote on the bill, which hasn’t yet been scheduled.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) also didn’t rule out voting for the bill during a brief interview but said that he’s in talks with leadership about trying to get amendment votes to make changes to the legislation.

“We need to try to get some amendments to make it better,” he said.

The lingering indecision comes as Senate Democrats plan to meet Wednesday afternoon for a closed-door lunch where they are expected to discuss their strategy ahead of the Friday midnight shutdown deadline. They face growing pressure from the left flank of their party to oppose the House bill, but it’s not clear any Plan B could pass in time to avoid a shutdown. House GOP leaders adjourned the chamber Tuesday night, with members not due to return to Washington until March 24.

Democrats are privately wrestling with a politically treacherous choice: They don’t want to be blamed for a shutdown and typically eschew brinkmanship politics. And while they don’t want to risk further empowering President Donald Trump and billionaire ally Elon Musk as they slash the federal government, some within the caucus are worried that allowing a government shutdown would only play into the two men’s hands.

One Senate Democrat said Wednesday he will not help pass the bill.

“I do not want to shut down our government, I want to improve it, streamline it and ensure it delivers services our communities need,” Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware said in a statement.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), meanwhile, joined a chorus of progressives publicly urging Senate Democrats to unite against the bill. She made clear that their opposition should include the 60-vote threshold procedural vote for breaking a filibuster.

“People aren’t going to be tricked with procedural games. They know exactly what is going on,” she wrote in an online post.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans made it clear on Wednesday that they are gearing up to blame Democrats — and specifically Minority Leader Chuck Schumer — if there is a shutdown. Democrats have tried to put the onus on Republicans to come up with a funding plan that could pass both chambers given that they control Congress and the White House.

“We’re about to find out whether Senate Democrats care more about the American people or putting on a dramatic act for their base. Let’s hope we can avoid the Schumer Shut Down,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), the No. 3 Senate Republican, wrote as part of a series of tweets on government funding.