“Not looking good for our great Military or Safety & Security on the very dangerous Southern Border,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter about a half-hour before the Senate vote. “Dems want a Shutdown in order to help diminish the great success of the Tax Cuts, and what they are doing for our booming economy.”
The House-passed bill would fund government operations through Feb. 16, and extend funding by six years for the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program, a provision intended to secure Democratic votes.
But Democrats were seeking concessions on other priorities, such as protecting young undocumented immigrants from deportation, increasing domestic spending, securing disaster aid for Puerto Rico and bolstering the government’s response to the opioid epidemic.
House Republican leaders told their members Friday night that no “imminent votes” were expected, indicating that after midnight, parts of the government would be closed. Federal agencies were already preparing for that eventuality; on Thursday night, officials at the White House Office of Management and Budget instructed federal agency leaders to give their employees informal notice of who would be furloughed and who would not if funding lapsed.
Formal notifications are to be given as early as Saturday morning, budget office officials said, insisting on anonymity to brief reporters about the details of what the White House called “lapse planning and shutdown operations.”
More than one million active-duty military personnel will serve with no lapse, they said, but could not be paid until the shutdown ends. Agencies like the Energy Department that have funding that is not subject to annual appropriations can use that money to stay open, the officials said, and the administration is encouraging them to do so. Most mandatory programs — entitlements such as Social Security that are automatically funded rather than subject to congressional appropriations — can continue without disruption.
Officials said Mr. Trump may travel on Air Force One to carry out his constitutional responsibilities, including a planned trip next week to Davos, Switzerland — although it was unclear whether trips to Mar-a-Lago, his exclusive club in Palm Beach, Fla., for golf and socializing, such as the one he had planned for this weekend, would fall into that category.
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The president tried to jump-start negotiations by inviting Mr. Schumer to meet with him in the Oval Office.
“We had a long and detailed meeting,” Mr. Schumer said at the Capitol after leaving the White House. “We discussed all of the major outstanding issues. We made some progress, but we still have a good number of disagreements. The discussions will continue.”
By Friday night, a last-minute congressional deal to stop a rare shutdown of a federal government under one-party control remained elusive.
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“Our Democratic colleagues are engaged in a dangerous game of chicken,” Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate Republican, warned in a speech on the Senate floor.
Mr. Trump, who described his session with Mr. Schumer as an “excellent preliminary meeting” in a Twitter post Friday afternoon, did not appear able or willing to suggest his own solution.
Mr. Cornyn said Mr. Trump rejected a proposal by Mr. Schumer to fund the government through Tuesday to allow negotiations to continue.
“The president told him to go back and talk to Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and work it out,” Mr. Cornyn said, referring to the House speaker and Senate majority leader. A spokesman for Mr. Schumer, Matt House, said that was not true.
Senate Democrats still held out hope that Mr. Trump, scorched by the firestorm prompted by his vulgar, racially tinged comments on Africa last week, would be willing to make concessions.
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“It’s time for us as Democrats and Republicans to sit down in a room together, think about this great nation and the frustration they have with our political system and those of us in political life,’’ Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, said in a speech on the Senate floor.
Around the country, state and local officials were left scratching their heads at the dysfunction in Washington.
“We’re the United States of America,” Gov. Matt Mead, the two-term Republican governor of Wyoming, said in an interview Friday. “We should be able to figure out these problems without going to the cliff every so often whether it’s with Republicans or Democrats in office. There certainly has to be a better way.”
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Democrats delivered speeches on the Senate floor in front of a huge placard that blared, “Trump Shutdown.” At the White House, Mr. Trump’s budget director, Mick Mulvaney, said the Trump administration was preparing for “what we’re calling the ‘Schumer shutdown.’”
Tempers were flaring in the Republican Party as well. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a moderate on immigration who has been trying to broker a deal with Democrats, laced into Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas on Friday, deriding him as “the Steve King of the Senate” in an interview with MSNBC, a reference to the Iowa congressman who is perhaps the most virulent anti-immigrant voice in Congress.
Mr. Cotton, who has helped thwart Mr. Graham’s efforts, retorted by referring to Mr. Graham’s failed 2016 presidential bid.
“The difference between Steve King and Lindsey Graham is that Steve King can actually win an election in Iowa,” Mr. Cotton told reporters.
Mr. Cotton went on to argue that it was Mr. Trump’s views on immigration that powered him to the Republican Party’s nomination, while Mr. Graham was relegated to the “kiddie table” at the primary debates.
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Mr. Trump canceled plans to travel to his Florida resort on Friday and will stay in Washington until a spending bill is passed, a White House official said Friday morning.
If Democrats vote down the stopgap bill, the move would hold undeniable risks. Ten Senate Democrats are running for re-election in states that Mr. Trump won in 2016, and many of those states — such as Indiana, Missouri, North Dakota and West Virginia — may hold little sympathy for one of the primary causes of the looming shutdown: protecting the young undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers.
Five of those Democrats introduced legislation on Friday to withhold the pay of members of Congress during a shutdown. “If members of Congress can’t figure this out and keep the government open, then none of us should get paid,” said Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri.
Three of them, Senators Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, and Joe Donnelly of Indiana, announced they would vote for the Republican spending measure.
The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, warned that the Senate was “just hours away from an entirely avoidable government shutdown.”
“This vote should be a no-brainer,” Mr. McConnell said, “and it would be, except the Democratic leader has convinced his members to filibuster any funding bill that doesn’t include legislation they are demanding for people who came into the United States illegally.”
The stopgap bill, which passed the House by a vote of 230 to 197, would keep the government open for a month, provide funding for CHIP and delay or suspend a handful of taxes imposed by the Affordable Care Act.
About a dozen, or possibly more, Senate Democratic votes will be needed to approve the measure because some Republican senators are expected to vote no.
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The standoff on immigration dates back to September, when Mr. Trump moved to end an Obama-era program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which shields the young immigrants from deportation. Democrats have been eager to enshrine into law protections for those immigrants.
At the same time, congressional leaders from both parties have been trying to reach an agreement to raise strict limits on domestic and military spending, a deal that would pave the way for a long-term spending package. So far this fiscal year, they have relied on stopgap measures to keep the government funded.
By Friday evening, it was still far from clear how the political blame would be divvied up if the government does shut down on Saturday, the anniversary of Mr. Trump’s inauguration.
“At some point, Congress needs to do better than government-by-crisis, short-term fixes, and sidestepping difficult issues,’’ said Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware. “That time is now.”
US politics US government faces shutdown after Senate rejects funding bill Republicans fail to address Democrat concerns about Dreamers and federal agencies now face a repeat of the 2013 closure Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer with fellow Democrat senator Tom Carper leave a party caucus meeting on Capitol Hill on Friday night. Photograph: Yuri Gripas/Reuters
The United States is on the brink of its first government shutdown in nearly five years after senators failed to reach a deal to keep the lights on.
An effort by Republicans to keep the government open for one month failed in a vote on Friday night as it did not address Democratic concerns about young undocumented immigrants know as Dreamers.
Republicans needed 60 votes to advance the bill under Senate rules but the legislation only received the support of 50 senators. Five red state Democrats broke ranks to support the bill while four Republicans voted against.
However, despite the vote’s failure, there were bipartisan efforts to reach a deal before the midnight deadline as clusters of senators mingled on the floor with the vote not officially over in an effort to avert a shutdown.
Quick guide All you need to know about the US government shutdown Show Hide What is a government shutdown? When the US Congress fails to pass appropriate funding for government operations and agencies, a shutdown is triggered. Most government services are frozen, barring those that are deemed “essential”, such as the work of the Department of Homeland Security and FBI. During a shutdown, nearly 40% of the government workforce is placed on unpaid furlough and told not to work. Many, but not all, are non-defense federal employees. Active duty military personnel are not furloughed. Why is the government poised to shut down? Members of Congress are at an impasse over what should be included in a spending bill to keep the government open. Democrats have insisted any compromise must also include protections for the nearly 700,000 young, undocumented immigrants, known as Dreamers, who were brought to the US as children.
The Dreamers, who were granted temporary legal status under Barack Obama, were newly exposed to the threat of deportation when Donald Trump moved to rescind their protections in September. Trump and Republicans have argued immigration is a separate issue and can be dealt with at a later time.
How common is a shutdown? There have been 12 government shutdowns in the US since 1981, although ranging in duration. The longest occurred under Bill Clinton, lasting a total of 21 days from December 1995 to January 1996, when the then House speaker, Newt Gingrich, demanded sharp cuts to government programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and welfare.
The most recent shutdown transpired under Obama in 2013, pitting the president against the Republican-led House of Representatives. Republicans refused to support a spending bill that included funding for Obama’s healthcare law, resulting in a 16-day shutdown that at its peak affected 850,000 federal employees. What would be the cost of a shutdown? A government shutdown would cost the US roughly $6.5bn a week, according to a report by S&P Global analysts. “A disruption in government spending means no government paychecks to spend; lost business and revenue to private contractors; lost sales at retail shops, particularly those that circle now-closed national parks; and less tax revenue for Uncle Sam,” the report stated. “That means less economic activity and fewer jobs.” Nearly 1 million people would not receive regular paychecks in the event of a shutdown. In previous shutdowns, furloughed employees have been paid retrospectively – but those payments have often been delayed. Sabrina Siddiqui Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images North America
Republican Senator Bob Corker exited the chamber and told reporters there would be no shutdown.
“It’s down to a discussion of dates,” Corker said of negotiations to pass a shorter-term extension than approved by the House of Representatives on Thursday.
Asked if he was confident there would be a compromise, Corker said: “Yeah, no question ... no question.”
Democrats earlier blamed Republican divisions for the failure of the vote. Senator Ron Wyden, a Democrat from Oregon, said lawmakers from his rival party were not on the same page as president Donald Trump.
“You’ve got the three branches of government — everything,” Wyden said. “Can these folks organize a two-car parade?”
What is Daca and who are the Dreamers? Read more
Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania also expressed his aggravation with conservative Republicans of the Freedom Caucus who had pushed a hard line on immigration. “I wasn’t elected to genuflect to the Freedom Caucus.”
Other Democrats expressed frustration with the entire spectacle, arguing that both sides were allowing political motivations to drive their position.
“I think in their minds they’re being reasonable,” Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, said of his own party. “The same way the Republicans who’ve taken a hardline stance think they’re being reasonable.”
On Thursday, the House voted by a margin of 230-197 to advance the bill after speaker Paul Ryan made concessions to conservative Republicans in the Freedom Caucus. These included a vote on increased military funding, a potential vote on a hardline immigration bill and other “subplots”, which Mark Meadows, the head of the Freedom Caucus, declined to share with reporters. The vote was almost entirely along party lines, with only six Democrats and 11 Republicans breaking ranks.
The bill did not contain any provisions to protect Dreamers, which has been a key Democratic priority since Donald Trump announced in September that he was rescinding an Obama-era program, known as Daca. The programenabled young, undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children to obtain temporary legal status.
After the bill passed the House, Ryan preemptively tried to blame Democrats for any government shutdown, telling reporters: “The only people standing in the way of keeping the government open are Senate Democrats.”
In a final dash to avert a shutdown, Trump cancelled plans to depart for his Mar-a-lago resort in Florida, where the president was due to celebrate the anniversary of his first year in office. Instead, Trump spent the day negotiating with congressional leaders.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Democrat senator Kamala Harris speaks during a rally in support of Dreamers in Washington. Photograph: Jose Luis Magana/AP
But despite hosting Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer in the Oval Office on Friday afternoon, the sides were unable to reach an agreement.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump critic turned confidant who helped craft a bipartisan bill to protect Dreamers, entreated the president to “close the deal”.
As lawmakers scrambled to chart a path forward, progressive activists and Dreamers held a rally against the illuminated backdrop of the US Capitol. They implored lawmakers to reject any funding measure that did not include a pathway to citizenship for the nearly 700,000 Dreamers whose protections will expire in March barring intervention from Congress.
“For all those Dreamers out there, our message for each and every one of you: there are those in our government that see you, that hear you, that believe and know that this country belongs to you,” said Congressman Joe Kennedy III, a Democrat of Massachusetts, who repeated the message in Spanish.
Funding for the government was initially due to expire in September, but lawmakers have since passed a series of stopgap measures to keep operations running in the absence of a long-term spending deal.
The conservative resistance: the rightwingers who stood up to Trump Read more
The last short-term extension, which was passed in December, pushed the deadline to 19 January while leaving the fate of Dreamers in limbo. Democrats subsequently faced backlash from immigration advocates and their base for failing to hold the line on Daca after having vowed not to adjourn for the new year without a solution.
Trump gave Congress until 5 March to replace the program. But Democrats have insisted the only way to resolve the deep partisan divide over immigration is by tying it to a must-pass bill that would simultaneously avert a shutdown and enshrine protections for Dreamers into law.
Trump showed a brief willingness to compromise last week by engaging lawmakers from both parties on a potential deal to legalize Dreamers in return for beefing up border security and changes to certain visa programs. But the president dramatically undermined bipartisan talks by questioning the need to admit immigrants from places like Haiti and El Salvador, dismissing them “shithole countries” in a private meeting with lawmakers.
Republicans meanwhile chose to move ahead with a short-term bill to fund the government, arguing that immigration was a separate issue to be dealt with at a later time. In a bid to apply pressure on Democrats, they also included in their measure a six-year authorization of the popular child health insurance program (Chip), which provides healthcare coverage to 9 million children.
The White House signaled it was bracing for a shutdown, with Trump teasing the prospect on more than one occasion Friday.
As lawmakers continued to huddle behind closed doors, the president tweeted: “Not looking good for our great Military or Safety & Security on the very dangerous Southern Border. Dems want a Shutdown in order to help diminish the great success of the Tax Cuts, and what they are doing for our booming economy.”
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) Not looking good for our great Military or Safety & Security on the very dangerous Southern Border. Dems want a Shutdown in order to help diminish the great success of the Tax Cuts, and what they are doing for our booming economy.
Federal law requires agencies to shut down if Congress has not appropriated money to fund them. In previous shutdowns, services deemed “essential”, such as the work of the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, have continued.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate was short of the votes needed to approve a bill to keep the federal government running as a midnight deadline loomed on Friday night, but high-level negotiations continued.
In a dramatic late-night session, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell left voting open despite appearing to fall well short of the 60 votes needed to keep alive legislation that would fund the government through Feb. 16.
Slideshow (15 Images)
As the clock ticked toward midnight, McConnell and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer huddled in a room just off the Senate floor.
Without some type of funding bill, the U.S. government technically would run out of money by midnight Friday. That would force a government shutdown with scores of federal agencies across the country unable to continue operating.
US government shutdown looms as Senate vote falls short, Trump says it's 'not looking good'
Updated
A last-minute measure to avert a government shutdown has been blocked in the US Senate, and President Donald Trump says efforts to secure a funding deal are "not looking good".
Key points: A deal to fund the government through February 16 was defeated 50 votes to 48
If a last-minute measure is not found, a partial shutdown will begin at 4:00pm AEDT
The vast majority of Democratic senators won't support funding bill unless it includes protections for Dreamers
Republicans and Democrats now have less than half-an-hour to hash out some type of funding deal to keep the government open.
Without one the government will technically run out of money and a partial shutdown will begin at midnight (local time, 4:00pm AEDT), on the first anniversary of Mr Trump's inauguration.
A bill to fund the government through February 16 and avoid a shutdown was approved by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives yesterday, but was blocked in the Senate this afternoon.
It was defeated 50 votes to 48, short of the 60 votes needed to pass.
As the clock ticked toward midnight, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer huddled in a room just off the Senate floor.
The vast majority of Democratic senators have said they would not support the funding bill unless it included protections for some 700,000 young people who came to the US illegally as children.
Known as "Dreamers", their right to remain in the US is due to be revoked in early March.
Republicans have so far refused, and before the Senate vote Mr Trump said the outcome was "not looking good".
He is blaming Democrats, saying they want a shutdown "in order to help diminish the great success of the Tax Cuts, and what they are doing for our booming economy".
If the government shuts down, which has only happened three times in a meaningful way since 1995, hundreds of thousands of "non-essential" federal workers may be told to stay home.
"Essential" employees, dealing with public safety and national security, would keep working.
It would be the first time a shutdown has occurred while one party, in this case the Republicans, controls both Congress and the White House.
Congress has been struggling for months to agree on long-term government funding levels but has been side-tracked by the dispute on immigration.
The Government has been operating on a third temporary funding measure since the new fiscal year began in October.
Mr Trump met with Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer at the White House earlier today in search of a breakthrough.
"Making progress — four week extension would be best," Mr Trump said in a tweet.
Mr Schumer agreed that some progress had been made but said there were still a number of disagreements.
ABC/wires
Topics: money-and-monetary-policy, immigration, budget, government-and-politics, foreign-affairs, united-states
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