[quote][url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-congress-shutdown/government-shutdown-looms-as-senate-short-of-votes-for-spending-bill-idUSKBN1F814Y]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, although 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 a stopgap bill that would fund the government through Feb. 16. As the clock ticked toward midnight, McConnell and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer huddled in negotiations in a room just off the Senate floor. Without some type of funding bill, the U.S. government technically will run out of money right after midnight, on the first anniversary of President Donald Trump’s inauguration. That would leave scores of federal agencies across the country unable to continue operating, and hundreds of thousands of “non-essential” federal workers would be put on temporary unpaid leave. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a stopgap funding measure on Thursday. But Republicans then needed the support of at least 10 Democrats to pass the bill in the Senate. Democratic leaders demanded that the measure include protections for hundreds of thousands of young undocumented immigrants known as “Dreamers” who arrived in the United States as children with their parents. Republicans refused and neither side has been willing to back down. Trump last week rejected a bipartisan proposal, saying he wanted to include any deal for Dreamers in a bigger legislative package that also boosts funding for a border wall and tighter security at the U.S. border with Mexico. In a shutdown, “essential” employees who deal with public safety and national security would keep working. That includes more than 1.3 million people on active duty in the military who would be required to work and would not be paid until funding is renewed. Although past government shutdowns have done little lasting damage to the U.S. economy, they can rattle financial markets. A new shutdown now would trigger a political battle between Democrats and Republicans over who is to blame. This week’s showdown follows a months-long struggle in Congress to agree on government funding levels and the immigration issue. Democrats have demanded the bill include protections from deportation for about 700,000 Dreamers, who are predominantly from Mexico and Central America and were given temporary legal status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program started by former President Barack Obama. In September, Trump announced he was ending the program and giving Congress until March 5 to come up with a legislative replacement.[/url][/quote] This was about 4 hours ago. [url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/19/us/politics/government-shutdown.html]As of right now, the US government has officially (partially) shut down[/url]. Also, to sum it up: A bipartisan bill for funding (which is rare, given how divided Congress is) was made and then rejected by Trump. Then, Trump decided to place all of the [url=https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/954541219970977793]blame on the Democrats[/url] for the entire thing, even though Democrats worked together with Republicans on a funding bill, AND Democrat minority leader in Senate, Chuck Schumer, [url=http://www.businessinsider.com/government-shutdown-schumer-wall-funding-for-daca-trump-deal-2018-1]met with Trump to work on this to ensure that the government would not shut down[/url]. Edit: Schumer tried to cater to Trump using Trump's own policy, and Trump backs out. From a third party point of view, I don't think Trump is willing to work with Democrats at all, even if they are offering something he advocated for during the campaign trail. Edit 2: [url=https://mobile.twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/954722155463430145]Trump placed all the blame on Democrats (and inaccurately mentioned that the military is being held "hostage")[/url], when he didn't take into account members of his own party and members of third parties also sided with Democrats. As of right now, [url=http://floor.senate.gov/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&event_id=2210]Senate has convened and is working on trying to get a bill that appeases not only both sides, but Trump also. They're also roasting the hell out of Trump using his own tweets against him[/url]. Edit 2a: The Republicans of Senate decided to end about 6 hours ago and work on it tomorrow at 1PM EST. Edit 3: [url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-congress-shutdown/first-day-of-government-shutdown-ends-in-standoff-idUSKBN1F90DE]Day 1: No progress, as Republicans and Democrats are not budging on their demands.[/url] Also noted in this update: Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has explicitly mentioned that both Republicans and Democrats have come close to agreement prior, but then Trump decided to back out. Schumer said this about Trump, a far cry from Trump saying that he was the best dealmaker: [quote]“Negotiating with President Trump is like negotiating with Jell-O,” said Schumer, who met Trump at the White House on Friday for a 90-minute meeting that had briefly raised hopes. “It’s impossible to negotiate with a constantly moving target.”[/quote] More to come as this is updated. Edit 4: [url=http://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/georgia-feels-impact-of-government-shutdown/686916733]The effects of the government shutdown are felt in Georgia[/url]. Basically, the parks are open, but no one is working at them. Edit 5: [url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/government-shutdown-2018-01-21-senate-house-sunday-session-continue-negotiations-president-trump-live-updates/] Senate meets back up on Sunday to try and go through negotiations. Still looks pretty bleak as Democrats are not budging from their stance, Republicans are actively trying not to communicate with the Democrats, and moderates on both sides are trying to communicate with Republicans to try and get the government running again.[/url] Trump is advocating for pretty much censorship of Democrats and moderates on his Twitter account(Even the Republicans and 2 Independents that sided with the Democrats), and a vote is to go up at 1AM EST to vote on the terms of the negotiations Edit 6: [url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/22/us/politics/government-shutdown.html]Moderate Democrats and third parties met up with Republicans over the weekend to help make a bipartisan decision to open up the government[/url], BUT, the caveat is that it's 3 weeks, and they're going to have to work together to include DREAMers into it over that course of 3 weeks. Glad to see that Senate is at least trying to work together to unite everyone.