Massachusetts lawmakers were still searching for a deal Wednesday night on a $2.8 billion spending bill that includes hundreds of millions for state emergency shelters housing homeless and migrant families.

As the clock quickly ticked down to the end of formal law making for the year, a compromise had not surfaced on legislation closing out the books on fiscal year 2023 that also included $250 million for the Healey administration to respond to a shelter crisis that has sucked up much of the political oxygen on Beacon Hill in recent months.

As sun set over the State House, the House had just finished approving a long-term care overhaul bill while the Senate was tying off prescription drug cost legislation. But no public action had been taken on the multi-billion supplemental budget.

Gov. Maura Healey repeatedly stressed in recent months that the shelter system — burdened by an influx of migrants and high housing costs — is in dire straits and needs more money to sustain itself through the end of the fiscal year, even after the administration put in place a 7,500 family capacity limit.

The House and Senate versions of the supplemental budget found common ground on a total of $250 million in spending but differed on whether to require the Healey administration to spend it in certain ways or give officials more leeway.

The House put restrictions on how the Healey administration could spend the money, mandating that $75 million head to school costs, $65 million to shelters, $18 million to temporary sites, $12 million to families services, and $6 million for “additional municipal supports.”

Representatives also approved $50 million for an overflow shelter site for families on an emergency shelter waitlist that is triggered when shelters reach Healey’s self-imposed shelter capacity.

But the Senate took a different approach, eschewing spending requirements with the argument that the Healey administration needed more “flexibility” to respond to what could become a humanitarian crisis this winter.