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The game is the same, but many of the players have changed. Congress and the president are facing off in another supreme spending showdown. If they don't agree on a funding bill by the end of September 30, much of government will shutdown. This last happened in 2011, when Congress avoided a shutdown by passing a spending measure shortly after the midnight deadline hit. Who controls what happens this time? Take a look at the key players who will determine how this fight ends: -- From CNN Capitol Hill Reporter Lisa Desjardins. CNN's Deirdre Walsh and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.

Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio -- The coach. He'll make the key play call. The top Republican leader in the land may be the most important player in the days immediately before a possible shutdown. Boehner could decide whether to push through the Senate's version of a spending bill and keep government running, or he could float a third version with some other Republican wish list items in it. If he takes the second option, Boehner could risk a shutdown but could also force the Senate into a tough position: give House Republicans something or send federal workers home. Timing on all this will be critical.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas -- The revolutionary or rabble rouser, depending on your viewpoint. The tea party firebrand could lead a long filibuster on the Senate floor, delaying passage of a spending bill until just one day before the deadline on Monday, September 30. Cruz has stoked the anti-Obamacare flames all summer, but recently angered fellow Republicans by openly saying that the Senate does not have the votes to repeal the health care law.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida -- Senator to watch. The potential presidential candidate has been one of three senators (Cruz and Mike Lee, R-Utah, being the others) pushing to use the government shutdown debate as a way to repeal or defund Obamacare. But watch his actions and language as a shutdown nears to see if he digs in or if downshifts at all.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada -- The man steering the ship in the Senate. Master at using Senate procedure to his advantage, Reid is the main force in controlling the voting process in the chamber and ensuring that an attempted filibuster by tea party-types fails. The majority leader will be a primary negotiator if we reach phase three, if the House does not accept the Senate spending bill.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky -- If Reid steers the ship, McConnell controls the headwinds. Which is good news for Reid, at least initially. The Republican leader and several of his members say they will vote against Cruz's filibuster and in favor of a spending bill with no limits on Obamacare. Meaning, in favor of a bill that just funds government. McConnell generally has been leery of running into a shutdown or default. In fact, one legislative method for avoiding default is named after him.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington -- The consigliore. Murray, center, does not seek the outside limelight, but the Senate Budget Committee chairwoman is a major fiscal force behind the scenes on Capitol Hill. Known by fellow Democrats as a straight shooter, she is also an experienced negotiator, having co-chaired the laborious, somewhat torturous and unsuccessful Super Committee.

Rep. Tom Graves, R-Georgia -- The new militia leader. The freshman congressman from Georgia, second from right, is one reason the debate has reached this point. Graves led the charge that blocked the original proposal by House Republican leaders. That would have kept government funded and had a detachable portion on Obamacare. Instead Graves and other conservatives forced their leaders to pass a spending bill with a mandatory defunding of Obamacare.

Rep. Peter King, R-New York -- The blunt statesman. King is outspoken against many tea party tactics, calling the move to tie Obamacare to the must-pass spending bill essentially a suicide mission and Cruz "a fraud." He is pushing for Republicans to accept a more "clean" spending bill that can pass the Senate and avoid a shutdown.

Thomas Donohue, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce -- The heavy. Donohue is known for his deep connections and his aggressive lobbying on behalf of business. He and the Chamber are urging Republican lawmakers to avoid a shutdown. The Chamber is an important political backer for conservatives, but has had mixed success with the current Congress, locking in firm anti-tax positions but unable to push through immigration reform so far.

Michael Needham, president of Heritage Action -- The driving force. Needham runs the political offshoot of the conservative Heritage Foundation and has been unrelenting in urging lawmakers to repeal Obamacare. He has told Republicans not to fear a potential shutdown, saying they would suffer more politically from allowing Obamacare to continue.

President Barack Obama -- The campaigner and CEO. Expect the president to use his podium more as a shutdown nears, aiming at public opinion as Democrats in Congress position themselves. If House Republicans send back a new proposal close to the September 30 deadline, the president and Democrats will have to decide what move to make next.

Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Virginia -- The powerful lieutenant. Cantor, the House Republican No. 2, is much more closely allied with conservatives and tea party members in the House than is Speaker Boehner. The two have not always agreed on every strategy during potential shutdown debates, but have been in public lockstep during the current go-around.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-California, and Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland -- Players on deck. The top two House Democrats are mostly watching and waiting. But they will play a critical role once Boehner decides his next move. They could either bring Democratic votes on board a deal or be the loudest voices against a new Republican alternative. Hoyer will be interesting to watch; he has strongly opposed both the House and Senate plans as cutting too much in spending.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-California -- The numbers guy. McCarthy, the House whip, has the tricky job of assessing exactly where Republican members stand and getting the 217 votes it takes to pass a bill in the chamber. He is known for his outreach to and connection with many of the freshmen House members who align with the tea party.

Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin -- Member to watch. The vote of the House budget chairman and former vice presidential nominee is an important signal both within Republican ranks and to the public at large. Ryan has voted against some funding measures in the past, including the emergency aid for Superstorm Sandy recovery. But he was a "yes" on the last extension of the debt ceiling.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Florida -- Another member to watch. A former committee chairwoman (Republican rules have term limits for committee chairs), Ros-Lehtinen knows House politics and procedure inside out. Depending on the issue, she has been described as a conservative or moderate, and occasionally as a libertarian.

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Washington (CNN) -- In a congressional version of hot potato, the Senate on Friday passed a short-term spending plan that would prevent a looming government shutdown and sent it to the House for a weekend showdown between Republican tea party conservatives and their more moderate party leaders.

The 54-44 vote on strict party lines came after Senate Democrats pushed through an amendment to restore funding for Obamacare that House Republicans had eliminated in their version of the spending measure, which would prevent the start of a government shutdown on Tuesday.

Now House Speaker John Boehner must decide whether to urge his divided Republican caucus to vote with Democrats to pass the Senate plan, or yield again to a hardline conservative wing that demands making continued government funding contingent on undermining Obamacare.

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The Senate began its votes Friday by easily overcoming a filibuster led by GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas against the spending plan. Cruz waged a 21-hour floor speech this week against Obamacare, but 25 more moderate Republicans rejected his tactics in voting with Democrats on Friday to move ahead on the measure.

All but two of the other Senate Republicans then joined Cruz in opposing the Democratic amendment to restore Obamacare funding, as well as in the vote for final approval. The other two Republicans -- Sens. Jeff Flake of Arizona and Orrin Hatch of Utah -- were out of town.

Boehner indicated Thursday the House could revise the Senate's version and send that back, a move that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid warned would result in at least the start of a government shutdown because of the time it would take to reconsider the proposal.

Cruz said Friday he expected his GOP colleagues in the House to continue the fight by revising the spending plan, which would mean "this issue is coming back to the Senate."

In Friday's votes, Democrats facing re-election next year in conservative-leaning states such as Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Mark Begich of Alaska, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Kay Hagan of North Carolina all resisted Republican pressure to buck their party over the Obamacare funding.

After the Senate vote on the spending plan, President Barack Obama criticized Republicans for using the threat of a government shutdown as leverage in trying to defund Obamacare.

"The House Republicans are so concerned with appeasing the tea party that they have threatened a government shutdown or worse unless I gut or repeal the Affordable Care Act," Obama said, adding: "That's not going to happen."

He noted new exchanges for private health insurance under the law will open next week as scheduled even if there is a government shutdown, calling it "a done deal."

Exclusive: Romney disagrees with GOP tactics

The revised spending measure approved by the Senate -- called a continuing resolution -- would fund the government through mid-November, more than six weeks into the new fiscal year that begins Tuesday.

Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski said the goal now was to work out a broader spending plan for the rest of fiscal 2014 that would ease the impact of forced cuts to the military and other government programs.

House GOP split

Republican leaders in both chambers don't want a shutdown now over the spending issue, for political and negotiating reasons.

They fear the optics of Republicans being blamed for a shutdown, and also want to exert as much leverage as possible for the GOP's agenda at the upcoming deadline to raise the federal debt limit.

However, Boehner needs backing from the 40 or so tea party conservatives in the House in order to have a spending plan pass with full support from his Republican caucus.

Their opposition to the Senate version that had included funding for Obamacare would mean the measure could only pass the House with support from all Democrats and some Republicans, which would further weaken Boehner's already shaky leadership of his caucus.

The brinksmanship highlights the division within the Republican Party over how best to attack Obama's signature domestic policy achievement, which was pushed through Congress by majority Democrats in 2010 and upheld by the Supreme Court last year.

Tea party conservatives want to halt Obamacare now, just as full implementation of its individual health care exchanges begins in the new fiscal year starting Tuesday.

In the Senate, veteran Republican conservatives such as John Cornyn of Texas oppose the tea party strategy of linking the Obamacare funding to a possible government shutdown.

"There are some people across America that are so upset with Obamacare -- and I understand their frustration -- that they say we ought to shut down the federal government," Cornyn said, adding that the Congressional Research Service had determined the health care reforms would be funded even if there was government shutdown "because there are alternate sources of revenue that could be used to keep it going.

"So I say to my friends who say we ought to shut down the government to get rid of Obamacare that it won't work," he said.

Democrats slam GOP tactics

Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa called on House Republicans to "be responsible and forget about kid's games like picking up their marbles and going home or throwing a temper tantrum or shutting down the government because you can't get your way."

On Thursday, Boehner had to delay their plan to introduce a bill to raise the nation's debt limit after conservatives complained the proposed package failed to include enough budget cuts and significant changes to entitlement programs.

The Obama administration says the debt ceiling must be increased by October 17 to ensure the government can pay all its bills.

Boehner signals GOP focus now on debt ceiling

Boehner and his top lieutenants initially hoped to move ahead with their proposal to permit Washington to borrow more money to pay its bills as soon as Friday.

The initial proposal by House GOP leaders, which would raise the debt ceiling for a year, included a lengthy list of GOP priorities including a one year delay of Obamacare, provisions to roll back regulations on businesses, tax reforms, and approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

However, conservatives wanted more.

"It definitely has a lot of goodies in it, things that arguably would grow the economy and would arguably would generate more revenue," GOP Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama told reporters, adding he was undecided on whether to support it. "Washington has a spending problem and this debt ceiling bill does not address the problem."

Another Republican, Rep. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, told CNN that she was also undecided but wanted to see deeper budget cuts on the measure.

"I came here to cut spending and to reduce the size of the federal government, so when those opportunities arise I want to take advantage of them," Lummis said.

When asked Thursday about the scope of cuts, Boehner told reporters that "in this bill, we have spending cuts and we have issues that will help spur more economic growth. We think the balance is correct."

Obama said Friday that the GOP strategy amounts to threatening to "burn the house down simply because you haven't gotten 100% of your way."

"That's not how our democracy is supposed to work," he said, repeating his past insistence that he will not negotiate under threat of a U.S. default because Congress failed to increase the debt ceiling.

White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Thursday a one-year delay in implementing Obamacare's individual mandate for people to obtain health insurance would undermine a key provision of the program that prohibits the denial of coverage due to pre-existing conditions.

"The fact is you have to make the system work," Carney said, adding people with pre-existing conditions won't be denied insurance under Obamacare "because of the expansion of the number of people who will be covered and participate in these marketplaces provided by the Affordable Care Act through the individual mandate."

Some House Republicans questioned the strategy of proceeding to the debt ceiling fight before Congress resolved the question on spending and the possible shutdown. They argued the GOP still had some leverage to force a change to Obamacare on that measure.

CNN Chief National Correspondent John King said Thursday that focusing on the debt ceiling was where House Republicans "wanted to wage this fight all along."

"They didn't want to get bogged down in the government shutdown fight, but a conservative revolt within the House Republican ranks forced them to get there," King said.

Analysts warn of severe economic impact from any doubt cast over whether the United States would fail to meet its debt obligations. A similar bout of congressional brinksmanship over the debt ceiling in 2011 led to the first-ever downgrade of the U.S. credit rating.

CNN's Dana Bash, Ted Barrett, Deirdre Walsh and Bryan Koenig contributed to this report.