Congressional negotiators are pushing toward a deal to make permanent a series of expired tax breaks for businesses and individuals, a step lawmakers hope would speed parallel talks on a must-pass $1.1 trillion government spending bill.

House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers filed a stopgap bill Wednesday to finance the government through Dec. 16 and avert a shutdown. “It is my hope and expectation that a final, year-long bill will be enacted before this new deadline,” the Kentucky Republican said in a statement. Current funding runs out after Friday.

Congress is simultaneously negotiating two fiscal measures — one that would fund the government through September 2016 and the other that would extend several dozen expired tax breaks that need to be renewed before the year's end. The bills aren't connected in any substantive way except that lawmakers are now using horse-trading on the tax extender bill help reach a compromise on the spending measure.