President-elect Donald Trump and his party may quickly find themselves engulfed in a battle to fund the federal government that NBC News reports could "mess with" the first 100 days of his second term.
What's more, writes NBC News, there appears to be "no easy answer" to resolve the situation.
At issue is the fact that Congress later this month is likely to pass a stopgap bill that will fund the federal government until March next year.
Should that happen, Republicans would have to usher through a funding package to avert a government shutdown with a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives less than two months after Trump's inauguration.
"The big downside is it would create a critical deadline early in the Trump presidency, potentially taking valuable time away from confirming his nominees through the Senate and from the big party-line bill that Republicans are looking at to extend his tax cuts and advance his immigration and border security agenda," writes NBC.
Republicans are also wary of trying to jam through too much into the continuing resolution given that such a package could anger hardliners in the House Freedom Caucus and imperil House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-LA) bid to hang onto his job.
What's more, after Trump tapped several members of the GOP House to serve in his administration, the Republican majority could be as narrow as 217-215 for most of the first 100 days of his second term.