Press release from Democrats on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce:

Senior Democratic Members of the House of Representatives announced today a new effort to overcome the Republican leadership’s obstruction and allow the House to vote to open the federal government as early as October 14th through a discharge petition. This discharge petition only needs a majority of House Members to sign on and does not require any action by the Republican leadership…

H. Res. 372 The “Open the Government” Resolution… would allow an up or down vote on a clean continuing resolution, consistent with the funding levels passed by the Senate, if a majority of House Members sign onto a discharge petition. A discharge petition can be filed after seven legislative days from the introduction of the resolution. If a majority of House members sign the discharge petition, a floor vote on a clean continuing resolution could occur as early as October 14th.

Follow the link above for details.

Until I read about HR 372 I had no idea what a discharge petition was.  Molly Jackman of the Brookings Institution provides a primer, Shutting Down the Government Shutdown

House members supporting a “clean CR”, i.e., potential signatories to a discharge petition.

UPDATE 10/14/2013:  The discharge petition currently has 196 signatures.  217 are needed for a majority.