Unless Congress acts before Wednesday at midnight, the U.S. government — once again — will officially run out of the legal authority to spend money.

The threat of a government shutdown has been looming for months, and some political analysts believe that last week’s surprise resignation by House Speaker John Boehner has reduced the odds that the government will grind to a halt Thursday.

But a spending bill now working its way through the legislative process would only keep the government funded through mid-December — roughly when the Treasury Department is expected to hit the so-called debt ceiling and run out of borrowing authority.

That deadline will set up another showdown — this one with a new speaker running the show in the House — that could inflict even more fiscal chaos and force federal agencies to suspend services and send government workers home.

Political observers are already handicapping the odds the presumptive new speaker, current Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., will use the occasion to prove his conservative credentials to his House colleagues.

Read the article “How the Government Shutdown May be Averted, For Now” on cnbc.com.