Shutdown looming: Weekend showdown at the Capitol

WASHINGTON (AP) — Time running short, the Democratic-controlled Senate passed urgent legislation today to avert a government shutdown, and President Barack Obama lectured House Republicans to stop "appeasing the tea party" and quickly follow suit.

Conservative House rebels, using the shutdown threat to attack Obama's health-care overhaul, showed no signs of backing down, however.

First effects of a shutdown could show up as early as Tuesday if Congress fails to approve money to keep the government going by the Monday-midnight start of the new fiscal year.

"Think about who you are hurting" if government services are interrupted, the president said at the White House, as House Speaker John Boehner pondered his next move in a fast-unfolding showdown — not only between Republicans and Democrats but between GOP leaders and conservative insurgents.

Despite Obama's appeal, the Senate-passed measure faces a swift demise in the House at the hands of tea party conservatives who are adamantly opposed to funding that the measure includes for the three-year-old health-care law.

The Senate's 54-44 vote was strictly along party lines in favor of the bill, which would keep the government operating routinely through Nov. 15.