Republican leaders are beginning to get a sense of how many members of their conference will oppose the budget deal forged by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.
One good indicator for the votes count is this: 33 conservative House Republicans sent a letter to their leadership on Tuesday to urge a vote on a "clean" spending extension that would drop the government funding level for 2014, rather than a budget agreement that would eliminate some of the cuts forced by sequestration.
"The Budget Control Act is the law of the land," the letter to House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor reads. "Our Democrat colleagues are now threatening to shut the government down in order to change that. We should not permit that to happen."
Passing a clean "continuing resolution" -- an extension of existing funding -- would allow sequestration to take effect, and drop the government funding level for 2014 to $967 billion, a number members on both sides of the aisle have admitted is unsustainable.
The budget agreement agreed to by Ryan and Murray would bring that number back to $1.012 trillion for next year with a combination of cuts, reforms and fees that would replace a portion of the sequester cuts, as well as reduce the deficit.
The 33 signatories likely offer a starting list of which Republicans will vote against the budget compromise.
Republican leadership aides say that a preliminary count of their members showed a majority supporting the measure, and Democratic leadership aides do not believe that Democrats will overwhelmingly oppose the bill, even though an extension of unemployment benefits will not be included.