Washington: Republicans in the US Congress on Friday struggled to bridge internal differences over how to deal with a flood of child migrants at the southwestern border, mulling proposals likely to be rejected by President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats.

The confrontation between the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and the Democratic-controlled Senate increased the risk that no compromise will be reached ahead of lawmakers’ summer break, which is set to begin at the end of next week.

That could mean that agencies in charge of securing the southwestern border with Mexico and caring for migrant children end up scrambling to find savings in other operations until Congress and the White House can agree on emergency funding in September.

House Republicans huddled behind closed doors on Friday morning to try to come up with a plan for voting on a bill next week, before the start of the five-week break.

But they left the meeting undecided over how to respond to Obama’s request for $3.7 billion in emergency funds. The administration says the money is needed to deal with tens of thousands of children from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras amassing at the Texas border with Mexico and hoping to gain admittance into the United States.

Some Republicans warned that inaction on the headline-grabbing issue could spark a voter backlash in the run up to November’s congressional elections.

“We have a big political risk if we leave (in August) without doing anything,” Representative Bill Flores of Texas told reporters upon leaving the meeting.

“People are nervous. Some are nervous that we won’t do anything. Some are nervous that we will do too much,” said Flores, referring to his fellow House Republicans. Flores wants the House to stay in session until the border funding problem is resolved.

With Senate Democrats preparing to vote next week on a bill to give Obama $2.7 billion of his $3.7 billion request, House Republicans are mulling a much smaller amount, possibly $1 billion or less, according to several lawmakers.

Representative Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania said any bill that arrives on the House floor next week would spend less than $1.5 billion. He added that it could be “significantly” less, but he would not speculate on a precise number.

Furthermore, Republicans, including House Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions, sketched out controversial policy changes they would like to couple with any new money, which are certain to be rejected by Obama and Democrats in Congress.

These could include repealing a program Obama instituted on his own in 2012, which temporarily stopped deportation proceedings against some youths brought illegally into the United States by their parents before mid-2007.

Republicans argue that the policy is encouraging Central American children to flock to the United States.

Another, possibly more likely, policy change would amend a 2008 US anti-trafficking law so that it would allow the administration to more quickly and easily deport the Central American children.

Both ideas, said one senior Senate Democratic aide, would be “a non-starter” in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said of the proposed changes to the 2008 law: “Are we going to live up to our responsibility for humanitarian assistance, due process and the rest or are we going to take a cheap shot at kids?” (Additional reporting by David Lawder and Emily Stephenson; editing by Andrew Hay)