Mr. Trump, who described his session with Mr. Schumer as an “excellent preliminary meeting’’ in a tweet 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.
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.
“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.
He went on: “Nine out of ten, maybe even more would say to us, ‘For goodness sakes, will you stop your fighting, will you stop your bickering, will you stop your debating, would you get into a room and act like grown-ups and do something together for the good of this nation?”
Around the country, state and local officials were left scratching their heads at the dysfunction in Washington.
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“We’re the United States of America,” lamented Gov. Matt Mead, the two-term Republican governor of Wyoming, 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.”
In the Capitol, it was unclear when or if a vote would even be held, as each party prepared to blame the other for a shutdown.
Democrats delivered speeches on the Senate floor in front of a huge placard that blared: “Trump Shutdown.” But at the White House, Mr. Trump’s budget director, Mick Mulvaney, said the Trump administration is preparing for “what we’re calling the ‘Schumer shutdown.’”
Tempers were flaring within the Republican Party as well. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a moderate Republican 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 Iowa congressman who is perhaps the most virulent anti-immigrant voice in Congress.
Mr. Cotton, who has helped thwart Mr. Graham’s efforts, retorted with Mr. Graham’s failed 2016 presidential bid.
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“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 nominee, while Mr. Graham was relegated to the “kiddie table” at the primary debates.
Across the Capitol, House Republican leaders pressured Senate Democrats to capitulate and give their blessing to the stopgap measure.
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“Make no mistake about it: Senate Democrats are the only ones standing in the way of a fully funded government and a reauthorized health insurance program for children,” Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin said. “This is no time to play politics and force a shutdown. The House has done its job.”
House Republican leaders told their members late Friday morning to ‘‘remain flexible,’’ in case the Senate reached an agreement and sent the House a spending bill.
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.
In an early-morning Twitter post on Friday, Mr. Trump put pressure on Democrats to keep the federal government open.
Still, with great uncertainty on Capitol Hill, the government began bracing for a shutdown. National parks will remain open even if the government shuts down, the Department of Interior announced Thursday in a move that could help assuage public anger at Republicans if Congress fails to agree to a budget. The Defense Department, however, warned that military personnel would not be paid until Congress makes funds available.
If Democrats vote the stopgap bill down, 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 young undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers.
Five of those red state 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.
The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, warned that the Senate was “just hours away from an entirely avoidable government shutdown.”
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“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 the Children’s Health Insurance Program for six years and delay or suspend a handful of taxes imposed by the Affordable Care Act.
About dozen, or possibly more, Senate Democratic votes will be needed to approve the measure because some Republican senators are expected to vote no.
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.”
President Donald Trump and Republican leaders in Congress are racing to meet a midnight Friday deadline to pass a short-term spending bill to keep the U.S. government open and prevent agencies from shutting down.
During government shutdowns, employees in all three branches of government are vulnerable to furlough, or temporary unpaid leave. Other "essential" workers, including those dealing with public safety and national security, continue working, some with and others without pay.
After previous government shutdowns, Congress passed measures to ensure that essential and nonessential employees received retroactive pay.
The last government shutdown in October 2013 lasted more than two weeks and more than 800,000 federal employees were furloughed. Here is a sampling of what happened, based on previous Reuters reports and government sources:
NATIONAL PARKS: National parks closed and overnight visitors were given two days to depart, resulting in a loss of 750,000 daily visitors, according to the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association. The National Park Service estimated that the shutdown resulted in $500 million in lost visitor spending in areas surrounding parks and the Smithsonian museums.
WASHINGTON TOURIST SIGHTS: Popular tourist destinations such as the Smithsonian closed, with barricades going up at the Lincoln Memorial, the Library of Congress and the National Archives. The National Zoo closed to visitors and its popular "Panda Cam" went dark shortly after the birth of a much-watched cub.
TAXES: The Internal Revenue Service furloughed 90 percent of its staff, according the liberal Center for American Progress. About $4 billion in tax refunds were delayed as a result, according to the Office of Management and Budget, or OMB.
MAIL DELIVERY: Deliveries continued as usual because the U.S. Postal Service receives no tax dollars for day-to-day operations and relies on income from stamps and other fees.
TRAVEL: Air and rail travelers did not feel a big impact because security officers and air traffic controllers remained at work.Passport processing continued with some delays, as operations are funded by both fees and money appropriated by Congress.
COURTS: Federal courts, including the Supreme Court, remained open. The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts has said federal courts could continue to operate normally for about three weeks without additional funding.
HEALTHCARE: Sign-ups for the newly created Obamacare health insurance exchanges began as scheduled. The Medicare health insurance program for the elderly also continued largely without disruption. A program at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to track flu outbreaks was temporarily halted. Hundreds of patients could not enroll in National Institutes of Health clinical trials, according to the OMB.
CHILDREN: Six Head Start programs operating in Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina serving about 6,300 children shut for nine days before reopening with money provided by philanthropists, according to the OMB.
SOCIAL SECURITY: Social Security and disability checks were issued with no change in payment dates and field offices remained open but offered limited services. There were delays in the review process for new applicants.
MILITARY: All military personnel continued on normal duty status but about half of the Defense Department's 800,000 civilian employees were placed on unpaid leave. Nearly all were recalled one week into the shutdown after the Defense Department implemented the Pay Our Military Act, which had recently been passed by Congress.
LOANS: The processing of mortgages and other loans was delayed when lenders could not access government services such as income and Social Security number verification. The Small Business Administration was unable to process about 700 applications for $140 million in loans until the shutdown ended, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
VETERANS: Department of Veterans Affairs services continued, including the operation of VA hospitals.
FOOD INSPECTIONS: Department of Agriculture meat inspectors stayed on the job. Agricultural statistical reports ceased publication. The USDA's website went dark and linked to a page explaining the shutdown.
(Reuters) - President Donald Trump and the U.S. Congress are racing to meet a midnight Friday deadline to pass a short-term bill to keep the U.S. government open and prevent agencies from shutting down.
In shutdowns, nonessential government employees are often furloughed, or placed on temporary unpaid leave. Workers deemed essential, including those dealing with public safety and national security, keep working, some with pay and others without.
After previous government shutdowns, Congress passed measures to ensure that essential and nonessential employees received retroactive pay.
The last shutdown, in October 2013, lasted more than two weeks and more than 800,000 federal employees were furloughed. Here is what happened then, along with some recent updates from officials:
MILITARY: The Defense Department said on Friday that a shutdown would not affect the U.S. military’s war in Afghanistan or its operations against Islamist militants in Iraq and Syria. All military personnel on active duty would remain on normal duty status. Civilian personnel in nonessential operations would be furloughed. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said a sustained funding impasse would cause ships to go without maintenance and aircraft to be grounded.
JUSTICE: The Justice Department has many essential workers. Under its shutdown contingency plan, about 95,000 of the department’s almost 115,000 staff would keep working.
FINANCIAL OVERSIGHT: The stock market-policing Securities and Exchange Commission funds itself by collecting fees from the financial industry, but its budget is set by Congress. It has said in the past it would be able to continue operations temporarily in a shutdown. But it would have to furlough workers if Congress went weeks before approving new funding.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, meanwhile, would have to furlough 95 percent of its employees immediately. An agency spokeswoman said the derivatives regulator could, however, call in additional staff in the event of a financial market emergency.
NATIONAL PARKS: National parks closed in 2013 and it resulted in a loss of 750,000 daily visitors, said the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association. The National Park Service (NPS) estimated the shutdown resulted in $500 million in lost visitor spending in areas around the parks and the Smithsonian museums. The Trump administration has asked the NPS to examine ways to keep portions of some parks open, but overnight visitors might have to pack out their own trash, the Washington Post reported.
WASHINGTON TOURIST SIGHTS: In 2013, popular tourist sites such as the Smithsonian closed, with barricades going up at the Lincoln Memorial, the Library of Congress and the National Archives. The National Zoo closed and its popular “Panda Cam” went dark. The Smithsonian has said its museums could remain open for the first weekend. The NPS, which oversees many Washington landmarks, including the National Mall, has said it has a plan in place so that “First Amendment activities” can continue during a shutdown.
TAXES: The Internal Revenue Service furloughed 90 percent of its staff in 2013, the liberal Center for American Progress said. About $4 billion in tax refunds were delayed as a result, according to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
MAIL DELIVERY: Deliveries would continue as usual because the U.S. Postal Service receives no tax dollars for day-to-day operations.
TRAVEL: Air and rail travelers did not feel a big impact in 2013 because security officers and air traffic controllers remained at work. Passport processing continued with some delays.
COURTS: The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts has said federal courts, including the Supreme Court, could continue to operate normally for about three weeks without additional funding.
HEALTHCARE: Sign-ups for the newly created Obamacare health insurance exchanges began as scheduled in 2013. The Medicare health insurance program for the elderly continued largely without disruption. A program at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to track flu outbreaks was temporarily halted. Hundreds of patients could not enroll in National Institutes of Health clinical trials, according to the OMB.
CHILDREN: Six Head Start programs in Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina serving about 6,300 children shut for nine days, the OMB said.
SOCIAL SECURITY: Social Security and disability checks were issued in 2013 with no change in payment dates and field offices remained open but offered limited services. There were delays in the review process for new applicants.
LOANS: Processing of mortgages and other loans was delayed when lenders could not access government services such as income and Social Security number verification. The Small Business Administration was unable to process about 700 applications for $140 million in loans until the shutdown ended, OMB said.
VETERANS: Most employees at the Department of Veterans Affairs would not be subject to furlough. VA hospitals would remain open and veterans’ benefits would continue, but education assistance and case appeals would be delayed, the department said.
FOOD INSPECTIONS: Department of Agriculture meat inspectors stayed on the job. Agricultural statistical reports ceased publication. The USDA’s website went dark.
ENERGY: The Department of Energy said on Friday that since most of its appropriations are for multiple years, employees should report to work as normal during a shutdown until told otherwise. If there was a prolonged lapse in funding a “limited number” of workers may be placed on furlough.
US Congress Government shutdown: first closure in four years looms hours before deadline As the minutes ticked towards midnight, dueling parties in Congress showed no signs of breaking impasse over spending and Daca Donald Trump arrives to speak live via video link to the annual March for Life. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
The US government on Friday barreled toward its first shutdown in more than four years, as lawmakers in Congress showed no signs of breaking an impasse over spending priorities and the fate of young undocumented immigrants.
Trump to mark anniversary with Mar-a-Lago bash as thousands get set to protest Read more
Hours before a deadline of midnight to fund the government, the White House said the prospect of a shutdown had “ratcheted up” and blamed Democrats for objecting to the short-term spending measure that narrowly passed the House of Representatives on Thursday.
White House budget director Mick Mulvaney told reporters on Friday evening he expected an agreement to be reached within the next 24 hours. “I think there is a deal in the next 24 hours because of the nature of the back and forth between the House and the Senate I look at more in terms of what gets done before the offices are supposed to open on Monday,” Mulvaney told CNN.
By Friday afternoon, it was clear Democrats and a handful of Republicans were steadfast in their opposition. Donald Trump canceled plans to travel to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and summoned the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, to the White House.
Despite huddling behind closed doors for an hour and 15 minutes, the two New Yorkers fell short of reaching a deal.
“We made some progress but we still have a good number of disagreements,” Schumer told reporters upon returning to Capitol Hill. “The discussion will continue.”
On Twitter, Trump offered a rosier assessment, declaring: “Excellent preliminary meeting in Oval with @SenSchumer - working on solutions for Security and our great Military together with @SenateMajLdr McConnell and @SpeakerRyan. Making progress - four week extension would be best!”
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
John Cornyn, the second-ranking Senate Republican, said he had spoken to White House chief of staff John Kelly and heard that “the president told [Schumer] to go back to Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and work it out”.
“The ball is in Senator Schumer’s court,” he said.
The meeting came hours after the White House laid blame squarely on the Democratic leader for bringing the federal government to the brink, even coining the term “Schumer shutdown”.
“We do not want a shutdown,” Mulvaney told reporters. “If Mr Schumer insists on it, he is in a position to force this on the American people.”
But a Washington Post-ABC News poll released on Friday found that 48% of Americans would blame Trump and the Republicans in the event of a government shutdown; 28% said the Democrats would be responsible and 18% said both parties would be equally at fault.
In a floor speech in the Senate, Mitch McConnell said a vote on the stopgap spending measure should be a “no brainer”. Democrats were willing to “hold the entire nation hostage” to protect “people who came into the United States illegally”, he said.
“To even repeat this position out loud is to see how completely ridiculous it is.”
This is the greatest country in the world, but we do have some really stupid people representing it from time to time Republican Orrin Hatch
Orrin Hatch, a Republican from Utah, was more blunt.
“This is the greatest country in the world, but we do have some really stupid people representing it from time to time,” he said.
Trump was preparing to mark his first year in office on Saturday, potentially as the first president to oversee a shutdown with a single party in control of the government.
In an early morning tweet, he wrote: “Shutdown coming? We need more Republican victories in 2018!”
House Republican leaders, who found enough conservative votes to pass an extension of government funding through 16 February, said they would send their members home, escalating pressure on the Senate to pass something similar. In a subsequent advisory, House Republicans were told to “remain flexible”.
Schumer has proposed a shorter stopgap measure, which would expire after four or five days, as a way of averting a shutdown without compromising Democrats’ attempts to negotiate an immigration deal.
Republicans balked at that timeline, noting that the shorter-term proposal would not resolve the issues over immigration or domestic spending.
Kevin McCarthy, the House majority leader, called the proposal “unproductive”. Mark Meadows, leader of the powerful conservative House Freedom Caucus, rejected it outright.
Senate Democrats cited a number of shortcomings in the House funding bill, ranging from immigration to emergency disaster relief. A handful of conservatives in the Senate also objected, leaving Republicans short of the 60 votes required to overcome a filibuster.
A shutdown would place nearly 40% of federal employees on unpaid furlough and cost the US an estimated $6.5bn a week.
US government shutdown looms as Republicans struggle to pitch bill Read more
The primary sticking point for Democrats remained a failure to offer protections for the nearly 700,000 undocumented migrants, known as Dreamers, who were brought to the US as children. In September, Trump rescinded an Obama-era program that granted temporary legal status, exposing the young migrants to deportation.
The already-fraught negotiations were severely damaged last week when Trump reportedly questioned the need to admit immigrants from “shithole countries”, in reference to Haiti, El Salvador and Africa.
Trump then undermined efforts by Republicans to garner support for their bill, denouncing the measure for including a six-year reauthorization of a popular children’s health insurance program.
The White House strongly rejected the notion that the president had been disengaged and bore some of the blame for the breakdown in bipartisan talks.
“There is no way you could lay this at the feet of the president of the United States,” Mulvaney said. “He is actively working to get a deal.”
Amid the chaos on Friday morning, the Democratic congressman Al Green once again forced the House to vote on Trump’s impeachment. Though the resolution was again postponed on a strong bipartisan vote, it drew more support from Democrats than previously.
Additional reporting by Ben Jacobs
