The government shuts down after Senate blocks short-term spending bill

Show Caption Hide Caption Dems, Republicans blame each other after government shuts down The U.S. government shut down at midnight after Congress failed to resolve a partisan standoff over immigration and spending. In a late-night vote, Senate Democrats blocked a bill that would have kept the government running for four weeks. (Jan. 20)

WASHINGTON — The Senate blocked a short-term spending bill Friday night, causing a partial government shutdown to begin at midnight.

Government agencies began ramping down operations Saturday, the one-year anniversary of President Trump’s inauguration.

The shutdown could be short-lived. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., vowed early Saturday to keep the Senate in session, and the House was scheduled to reconvene at 9 a.m. Saturday to be ready to vote on whatever the Senate may pass.

McConnell announced that he would offer a new option to keep the government funded through Feb. 8, rather than the Feb. 16 date that the rejected bill would have set. It was not immediately clear when the Senate would vote on that plan.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said "there is a path forward."

"We can reach it quickly (Saturday)," he said. "The president and the four leaders should immediately sit down and finish this deal so the entire government can get back to work on Monday."

McConnell said "we’ll vote again so the American people know who stands for them."

Saturday morning, Trump blamed Democrats’ concern for illegal immigrants for the shutdown in a tweet saying "They could have easily made a deal but decided to play Shutdown politics instead.

McConnell held Friday's vote open for more than two hours, but opponents — including a handful of Republicans — had already cast more than enough votes to scuttle it. The final tally was 50-49. That was 10 votes short of the 60 needed to advance the bill.

The vote began less than two hours before government funding was set to expire and came after hours of negotiations that saw lawmakers scrambling in vain to reach a deal.

More than 100 onlookers watched the spectacle from the balconies above the Senate floor.

Most Senate Democrats opposed a House-approved spending bill because it wouldn't prevent the deportation of about 800,000 undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children. Democratic leaders had vowed not to support a funding deal unless it protected the young immigrants.

Trump blasted Democrats in a tweet Friday night, accusing them of wanting to cause a shutdown to take attention away from the success of the tax cuts recently passed by the GOP-led Congress.

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) January 20, 2018

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., who is up for re-election in a state Trump won by 42 points, was one of a handful of Democrats who voted to advance the bill. The other Democrats who voted for it were: Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Doug Jones of Alabama, and Claire McCaskill of Missouri.

Republicans who voted against the bill were: Jeff Flake of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky.

Just ahead of the vote, Manchin was asked if he thought Democrats were being reasonable: "I think in their minds they’re being reasonable. The same as I think Republicans who are taking a hard-line stance think they’re being reasonable."

The House had passed the spending bill Thursday to funded the government through Feb. 16, giving lawmakers more time to work out a compromise on legislation to fund federal agencies through September. It also would have reauthorized for six years the Children's Health Insurance Program, which helps states pay for health care for low-income kids.

A shutdown likely means that most federal agencies will close and hundreds of thousands of government workers will be furloughed unless Congress can pass a funding bill this weekend.

Federal workers deemed "essential" would stay on the job and military and homeland security operations would remain up and running.

The Trump administration said that most national park sites would remain open through the weekend, but would begin closing Monday if a funding deal is not reached by then.

Republicans and Democrats were rushing to blame each other.

3 ways the government shutdown may impact you A government shutdown could have an impact on everything from your passport application to your trip to a national park.

"Apparently they (Democrats) believe that the issue of illegal immigration is more important than everything else, all of the government services people depend on," McConnell said.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., shot back that it's the Republican majority in Congress and the Republican president who couldn't get the job done.

"Republican leadership — led by President Trump —has brought us to the brink of a government shutdown," Leahy said.

Schumer said it was Trump's failure to lead his party to compromise that caused the shutdown. Trump and Schumer met Friday afternoon to discuss a spending deal, and the Democratic leader said that in order to get an immigration deal "I reluctantly put the border wall on the table for discussion; even that was not enough to entice the president to finish the deal.”

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Democrats "put politics above our national security, military families, vulnerable children, and our country’s ability to serve all Americans." She also indicated Trump would not discuss immigration again until government funding is resumed.

Graham said neither party wins when the government shuts down.

"Everyone is convinced they’ll win — but in reality, nobody wins in a government shutdown," Graham said. "The ‘blame game’ makes for great Washington theater, but doesn’t serve the needs of the nation."

The last government shutdown was in 2013. Since then, Congress has come close to shutting down the government several times, but has always managed to reach a last-minute deal.

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