Congress is careening toward the first shutdown in more than four years, with Republicans and Democrats at a seemingly intractable impasse over government funding and the fates of young immigrants facing deportation. 
 
 Though House Republicans voted Thursday night to keep the government open, the real drama is in the closely divided Senate, where it's unclear what, if anything, can clear the chamber's supermajority threshold. The Senate couldn't even agree on holding a vote on Thursday night, adjourning after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell spurned Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's request to hold a vote and, assuming it failed, restart bipartisan negotiations on immigration and government spending levels. 
 
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 Senators said they expected a vote on Friday, but had little idea what would come next. 
 
 "These are hard issues, there's a lot of disagreement. Not just on substance but how to proceed to it. And everybody's trying to gain leverage," said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.)., the No. 3 GOP leader. 
 
 The uncertainty came just hours after House Republicans put weeks of internal squabbling behind them and secured votes for a spending plan to keep the government open for another four weeks. The vote was 230-197, with 11 Republicans in opposition and six Democrats crossing the aisle to back it. 
 
 The Senate voted to open debate on the bill late Thursday, but the plan's prospects in the Senate are dicey at best, with no apparent hope of winning the required 60 votes to break a filibuster. Some GOP lawmakers said they intend to vote against it, arguing that repeated short-term funding measures harm the military. And a sizable bloc of Democrats have also come out in opposition because it does not address the fate of hundreds of thousands of young immigrants at threat of being deported. 
 
 The end game appears to be either a much shorter extension of government funding and rapid negotiations — or a shutdown and finger-pointing. 
 
 "I'm not going to vote for 30 days more of chaos," said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). 
 
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 McConnell lit into Democrats on Thursday evening for taking a hard line on linking the expiring Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to the government funding fight. He said the House's bill reauthorizing a children's health insurance program and keeping the government's lights on should be an "easy yes vote for any senator." 
 
 "My Democratic colleagues' demand on illegal immigration at the behest of their far-left base have crowded out all other important business," McConnell said. "I think the American people clearly would not expect us to act this way." 
 
 Schumer shot back: "The leader is looking to deflect blame. But it just won't work. We all know what the problem is. It's complete disarray on the Republican side." 
 
 The two party leaders spent much of Thursday evening bickering on the Senate floor. 
 
 Federal funding runs out at midnight Friday. If there is no spending plan in place by then, the federal government will begin to shut down non-essential operations — a crisis that both parties and the White House say the desperately want to avoid. 
 
 Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) called on Senate Democrats to drop their opposition to the funding proposal, which would keep federal agencies open through Feb. 16. House Republicans also added tens of billions of dollars of funding for a popular children's health program in a bid to win more support. 
 
 “Sen. Schumer, do not shut down the federal government," Ryan told reporters after the House vote. “It is risky, it is reckless and it is wrong.” 
 
 Ryan added: “The only people standing in the way of keeping the government open are Senate Democrats. Whether there is a government shutdown or not is entirely up to them.” 
 
 In order to win Thursday's vote, Ryan struck a deal with Freedom Caucus conservatives shortly before a scheduled floor vote on a spending provision. The agreement, which promised the group a separate vote on military funding, is expected to yield enough votes to secure passage of the spending bill in the House. 
 
 The deal came together after Freedom Caucus members circumvented leadership and took their demands to President Donald Trump. A lingering disagreement between Ryan and conservatives had threatened to blow up the spending deal in the lower chamber — and undercut the GOP strategy of blaming Democrats for any shutdown. 
 
 Numerous Democratic senators emerged from a lively party lunch Thursday in opposition to the GOP plan. 
 
 “I am convinced that between Republicans who publicly said they’re [voting] no and Democrats who said they’re a ‘no,’ there are not enough votes in this chamber” to pass the House plan, said a Democratic Senator, who requested anonymity to discuss the matter freely. 
 
 The sentiment was confirmed by a Democratic aide and another senator. 
 
 McConnell told his members in an email obtained by POLITICO that he intends to keep the chamber in session through the weekend if a shutdown occurs. Republican senators also discussed the possibility of a much shorter spending bill at a Wednesday lunch, hoping to keep the pressure on Congress to hammer out a large agreement rather than punt on contentious spending and immigration issues. 
 
 Democrats and some Republicans appear willing to back only a spending bill lasting several days, hoping the small window would kickstart negotiations on a plan to protect hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from being deported. 
 
 “That would allow us to get a compromise, get a deal done. If we wait a month there’s little likelihood we’re in a better position than we are now,” said Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas.), who made the case to his colleagues that funding bills for as short as one or two days are preferable to allowing the government to close. 
 
 But Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) dismissed the idea of a spending plan that only lasts days. “No, we’re not going to do that,” he said. 
 
 Senate Democrats — furious with Trump for his reversal last week on a bipartisan Senate plan to protect 700,000 young immigrants from deportation — have signaled a new willingness to take a harder line. A handful who previously supported short-term funding measures have declared they will not this time around, including Tom Udall and Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats. 
 
 Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Senate Democrats are “very unified” in opposition to the House bill. Still he could not say for sure the bill would fail in the Senate. “It’s very close at this point,” Durbin said. 
 
 Several Republicans, like Graham and Rand Paul of Kentucky, indicated they can't support the House either, imperiling the GOP's unity in the Senate. McConnell tried to stop the bleeding in a Thursday email to his conference by warning other Senate Republicans against siding with Democrats: "This is an irresponsible position... I hope not a single Republican is inclined to join them." 
 
 McConnell prevailed on Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.). who had said he opposed the House bill but reversed course, saying he'd made a deal with the House for more defense funding. 
 
 The House GOP spent Thursday morning doing damage control after Trump tweeted criticism of their spending bill — all while trying to whip the GOP votes needed to pass the text through their own chamber. 
 
 In a Twitter broadside that rattled Republican nerves, Trump blasted the GOP congressional leadership’s decision to attach tens of billions of dollars in funding for a popular children’s health program to the spending bill. That money is a key part of the GOP's effort to pick up Democratic votes. 
 
 “CHIP should be part of a long term solution, not a 30 Day, or short term, extension!,” Trump said, referring to the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Speaker Paul Ryan and other House GOP leaders had attached the funding to the spending package in a — so far failed — effort to win Democratic support. 
 
 Ryan spoke with Trump about the matter afterward. And by lunchtime, the White House issued a statement clarifying that the president supports passage of the stop-gap measure. ||||| SHARE THIS ARTICLE Share Tweet Post Email 
 
 President Donald Trump will mark the first anniversary of his inauguration on Saturday with a celebration at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, with tickets starting at $100,000 a pair. 
 
 That amount, according to the invitation, will pay for dinner and a photograph with the president. For $250,000, a couple can also take part in a roundtable. 
 
 Trump told reporters in November that he had thought about having a celebration that month, a year after his victory over Hillary Clinton, but he was touring Asia at the time. 
 
 The event, hosted by Ronna Romney McDaniel, the chairwoman of the Republican National Committee, and the casino mogul Steve Wynn, will benefit the Trump presidential campaign and the RNC. 
 
 McDaniel’s maiden name, Romney, is not written on the invitation. Trump has had testy relations with her uncle Mitt Romney. Wynn is the RNC’s finance chairman. 
 
 It’s unclear whether Trump’s plans to travel to Florida for the weekend would change if the government is shut down when current funding runs out at midnight Friday. Legislation to extend the deadline is at an impasse in the Senate, and Republican leaders haven’t set out a way around it. Trump’s advisers believe the Senate will pass a short-term funding extension so it’s unlikely that he’ll be staying in Washington, a person familiar with his plans said. 
 
 Trump Victory, the joint fundraising committee hosting the event, raised $11.1 million through the first three quarters of 2017. It will report its year-end numbers on Jan. 31. 
 
 Black Friday Sale 
 
 Trump’s fundraising in his first year in office, which included swanky events for big donors and appeals to small-dollar donors, those who give $200 or less, including a Black Friday sale offering discounted prices on caps embroidered with the “Make America Great Again” slogan. His campaign asked donors to give as little as $3 for a chance to win two tickets to Saturday’s Mar-a-Lago fundraiser, with travel included as part of the prize. 
 
 Former President Barack Obama had been in office more than two years before he headlined his first re-election fundraiser. Former President George W. Bush raised a total of $268,423 in his first two years in office, according to Federal Election Commission records. ||||| CLOSE Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer said he and President Donald Trump "made some progress" during their White House meeting Friday afternoon, but added, "a good number of disagreements" remain and discussions on a spending bill will continue. (Jan. 19) AP 
 
 Washington, D.C. The Capitol is seen at sunrise, in Washington on Oct. 10, 2017. (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, AP) 
 
 WASHINGTON — Night fell on Washington with Democratic and Republican leaders still without a deal that would get them enough votes to keep the government open past midnight, even after Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer met privately with President Trump at the White House. 
 
 With mere hours before the government runs out of funding congressional leaders were still negotiating over a short-term spending bill that would appease at least a dozen Democrats. The Senate scheduled a procedural vote for 10 p.m. and House members — who had passed a bill of their own Thursday night — stuck around Washington in case they were called to come vote on a new deal. The 10 p.m. vote will be the first test of support for the House-passed measure. 
 
 White House budget director Mick Mulvaney predicted that Congress would most likely fail to meet the midnight Friday deadline to avert a shutdown, but he said he is optimistic that lawmakers and the White House would agree on a compromise by the end of the weekend. 
 
 "In theory, the Senate could deal with it before midnight and the House could in some fashion deal with it before midnight," he told reporters Friday. "It's more likely that if the Senate makes any changes it would take the House a while to get everybody back for the vote." 
 
 Still, "there's a really good chance it gets fixed" before government offices open on Monday, Mulvaney said. 
 
 Meanwhile, a group of centrist Democrats — all up for re-election in states Trump won in 2016 — appeared to be attempting pre-emptive damage control. The group introduced a bill that would withhold the pay of members of Congress if the government shuts down. 
 
 “If members of Congress can’t figure this out and keep the government open, then none of us should get paid,” said Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill. Sens. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., Jon Tester, D-Mont., Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., and Joe Manchin, D-W.V. also co-sponsored the legislation. 
 
 Trump and Schumer "had a long and detailed meeting," Schumer said when he returned from the White House Friday afternoon. "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." 
 
 Senate Republican Whip John Cornyn of Texas said it is up to Congress to resolve the impasse. 
 
 “I talked to (Chief of Staff) Gen. Kelly and he was telling me about the meeting at the White House and he said there were were no agreements with Sen. Schumer and the president told him to go back and talk to Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell and work it out," Cornyn said. "I think that’s the best way to handle this.” 
 
 Senate Democrats — and a few Republicans —appeared poised to kill a Republican spending bill that would keep the federal government funded through Feb. 16, and lawmakers are locked in an increasingly bitter stalemate over a broader spending deal. 
 
 Most Senate Democrats oppose the short-term spending bill, called a continuing resolution, because it does not include protections for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children. But they also object to the measure because it fails to deal with a broad array of other Democratic spending priorities. 
 
 But the House passed the bill Thursday and it is the only funding bill currently on the table. 
 
 “This vote should be a no brainer,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on the Senate floor Friday morning. 
 
 He blasted the Democrats for their plan to reject the four-week spending bill, saying they were “holding the entire country hostage” in an effort to win protections for immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children. 
 
 “To even repeat this position out loud is to see how completely ridiculous it is,” McConnell said, saying the government is now just hours away from what he called a “Democrat shutdown.” 
 
 Democrats quickly noted that Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House and yet have failed to come up with a budget agreement that can pass Congress and win the president's signature. 
 
 “The Republican majority has failed in 119 days to produce a budget for the United States of America,” said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the No. 2 Senate Democrat. “The best that the Republican leader in the Senate can offer us is another Band-aid, another four weeks of temporary funding.” 
 
 Durbin noted that the spending bill now pending in the Senate is the fourth such temporary funding measure Republicans have pushed in the last year. It would keep government funding frozen at current levels for four weeks, with no indication Republicans could come up with a full-year spending agreement before Feb. 16. 
 
 CLOSE House Speaker Paul Ryan is pressuring Democrats to back a bill preventing a weekend government shutdown and says "cool heads hopefully will prevail." (Jan. 17) AP 
 
 Democrats and some Republicans in the Senate are floating the idea of an even shorter timeframe for a spending bill in order to ratchet up pressure on lawmakers to negotiate. 
 
 But not everyone is on board. 
 
 “The Democrats’ position is we don’t want to have (continuing resolutions) because they’re bad for the government. So how is it logical to go from a 30 day CR to a 10 day CR or a 4 day CR? That’s silly,” Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton said. “I support what the House passed yesterday.” 
 
 The immigration debate was sparked by Trump in September, when he reversed an Obama-era executive order that granted legal protections to the so-called Dreamers, those immigrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children. Many of these immigrants now have temporary legal states under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) program, but it will expire in March under the new White House policy. 
 
 Demonstrators supporting the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program rally outside the office Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., in Los Angeles on Jan. 3, 2018. (Photo: Reed Saxon, AP) 
 
 Trump gave Congress six months to find a legislative solution and initially suggested he would sign any agreement lawmakers came up with. But last week, he rejected a bipartisan Senate deal, saying it did not do enough to stop illegal immigration and close a visa lottery program. 
 
 The House passed the spending bill Thursday night 230-197, with almost all Republicans voting yes. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi had urged her caucus to vote against the bill. Six centrist Democrats ultimately voted in favor, but not until after it was clear the bill would pass. 
 
 In the Senate, Republicans have a narrow 51-49 majority and legislation requires 60 votes to advance. Democrats say they have enough “no” votes to block the bill, and at least two Republican senators have said they will vote against the bill as well. 
 
 A government shutdown Saturday would fall on the one-year anniversary of Trump’s inauguration. Friday the White House announced that a pre-planned trip to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., which would include a fundraising dinner, was no longer certain as the chances of a government shut down rose. 
 
 Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., have both announced they’re against the bill. Sen. John McCain of Arizona is out of Washington dealing with health issues. Graham late Friday said he is suggesting instead a 3-week extension that would fund the government through Feb. 8. 
 
 Contributing: David Jackson, Gregory Korte and Erin Kelly 
 
 Read More: Social security benefits? Passport? What the government shutdown would mean 
 
 With Senate vote on government shutdown looming, Trump blames Democrats 
 
 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2DuP09H ||||| Published on Jan 18, 2018 
 
 It's a crummy way to run a government, sure, but Social Security checks will still go out. 
 
 
 
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– The looming government shutdown has had one tangible effect so far: President Trump has put plans for a trip to his Florida Mar-a-Lago resort on hold, reports NBC News. "The President will not be going to Florida until the CR passes," the White House said, referring to a continuing resolution to keep the government open before a midnight deadline arrives. However, the likelihood of a deal shrank even more on Friday when Trump and Sen. Chuck Schumer failed to strike an agreement at an afternoon White House meeting, reports USA Today. Trump had been planning to leave Friday to attend an anniversary bash on Saturday at Mar-a-Lago, a celebration of his first year in office, reports Bloomberg. More on the shutdown, and its potential effects on everyday life: Prospects: Things are "dicey at best" in terms of a deal, with Politico seeing a "seemingly intractable impasse" in the Senate. One huge sticking point is that Democrats want any spending plan to include protections for about 700,000 young "Dreamer" immigrants. Still, talks were continuing, and it's possible the Senate could take some kind of action Friday to avoid the shutdown, if only for the short term. The effects: You'll still get mail if the government shuts down, and Social Security recipients will still get their checks. Air traffic controllers and the TSA would stay on the job, so air travel shouldn't be greatly affected, explains USA Today. But services deemed "non-essential" would suffer—for example, those waiting on a passport might be out of luck. The AP has a video primer.