Before Congress leaves for the Christmas holiday, it must first pass a new spending bill to prevent the government from shutting down after the current bill runs out Dec. 11. No one wants a shutdown, but the government should be funded the right way — temporarily for now, and for the longer term only after the rightful, newly elected legislators are sworn in.

The early word is that Republicans in leadership want to pass a long-term resolution that would set spending levels through the end of the current fiscal year on September 30, 2015. The measure they envision would reportedly omit spending related to immigration enforcement, which would receive a separate, short-term treatment. The new Republican Congress could then revisit immigration enforcement spending next month in a bid to countervail President Obama’s executive decree.