WASHINGTON — Lawmakers from hard-hit states such as Florida are demanding tens of billions of dollars of hurricane relief and rebuilding funds as part of another temporary Washington spending bill to keep the government from shutting down over Christmas.

Hurricane money is one of many pressing items as GOP leaders Wednesday evening unveiled an opening bid in the party’s strategy to avert a government shutdown next weekend. Plenty of hurdles remain, though, and a shutdown that could strike just before Christmas isn’t out of the question.

The measure released by House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., would keep the nondefense agencies of the government open through Jan. 19 while passing a huge Pentagon spending bill covering the entire 2018 budget year ending on Sept. 30.

The leadership-sponsored measure, however, doesn’t contain hurricane relief demanded by many Republicans and has already been declared dead on arrival in the Senate by top Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York.

Congress last week passed a two-week stopgap spending bill, called a continuing resolution in Washington-speak. This “CR” bought time for negotiations on the party’s signature tax bill, but talks with Democrats such as Schumer on the budget, disaster aid, children’s health and other leftovers aren’t going as smoothly.

The measure unveiled by Frelinghuysen fulfills a gambit proposed by some Republicans to try to force the Senate to pass a huge full-year Pentagon spending bill along with the temporary funding needed to avert a shutdown. The defense measure, which would award the Pentagon with a $73 billion budget hike, is a top priority for the GOP’s legion of defense hawks.

That move won’t fly, however, with Senate Democrats emboldened by Tuesday’s surprise win in the Alabama Senate race. And the idea ran into a buzz-saw of opposition from hurricane-state lawmakers at Wednesday’s GOP meeting, who were upset after Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told them the hurricane relief package wasn’t ready.