WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders believe they have reached a deal to head off yet another showdown over a possible government shutdown.

A proposed continuing resolution could be passed when Congress returns from its summer break in September, and is intended to carry through until the end of March, when the budget would be taken up by the next Congress. The measure is expected to maintain something close to the funding levels agreed upon last summer in the Budget Control Act, although some Republicans had hoped to cut more.

The federal government runs out of money at the end of its fiscal year on Sept. 30, and Congress has so far failed to pass the funding to keep the vast bureaucracy moving. In recent years, that moment has been subject to all manner of brinksmanship, with both sides using the opportunity to wrangle concessions.

But this year, with the elections coming just a month after the money runs out, both sides seem to have thought better of a high-stakes confrontation. They are already dueling over the looming “fiscal cliff” at the end of the year, when expiring tax cuts and mandatory budget reductions, enacted during last summer’s debt showdown, go into effect.

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