The U.S. faced the prospect of an imminent government shutdown for the third time this year, as a year-end fight between Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Congress over taxes and spending turned nastier.

Democrats, led by President Barack Obama, are refusing to sign off on a bipartisan $1 trillion government funding bill that would keep federal agencies operating beyond Friday. They first want Republicans to agree to a compromise deal to extend a payroll tax cut for 160 million Americans. The Republican-led House of Representatives passed its version of the payroll tax cut bill along a mostly party-line vote Tuesday, but Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has vowed to kill it as soon as he can bring it to a vote.

The Republican bill proposes to pay for the $120 billion cost of the payroll tax cut largely by freezing federal pay and shrinking the size of the government work force. Democrats reject it and are instead proposing a surtax on millionaires.

Republicans in the Senate blocked a Democratic bid Wednesday to quickly reject the House bill, which also includes a provision to speed up a decision on an oil pipeline that the White House has delayed for further environmental studies.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell stymied Reid's effort to dispose of the Republican bill, saying he wanted to turn first to the government funding bill.

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