Government moves to partial closure at midnight, lawmakers leaving Capitol Hill without agreement



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A partial reversal of the federal government seems inevitable, with legislators leaving the Capitol on Friday without an agreement on government funding before the deadline of midnight.

The House adjourned on Friday without agreement on spending. The Senate suspended its work soon after and its return is expected only Saturday at noon.

The Senate was striving to spend billions of dollars for the construction of a wall at the border, as part of ongoing negotiations to fund the government before midnight, acknowledged President Trump.

After keeping the vote open for five hours to get enough support, the Senate finally advanced Friday night a spending bill approved by the House, with $ 5.7 billion for a border. wall, after Vice President Mike Pence went to the Capitol to break a tie. This procedural obstacle opens the way for a final vote in the Senate. But it does not appear that a vote takes place before the deadline set at midnight.

With a threshold of 60 votes, the package passed by the House is unlikely to be approved on the side of the Senate. However, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Friday, "Let's move this bill forward. Let's move on. Let's finish our work for this year. Let's secure our country.

Behind the scenes, negotiations continued in the evening. Pence met with Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer at Capitol Hill as well as White House Councilors Mick Mulvaney and Jared Kushner. Sources told Fox News that negotiations were underway to obtain new funds for border security.

"A feeling of optimism prevails now," said a republican source at the Republican House.

The House approved Thursday a budget of $ 5.7 billion border between the United States as part of a measure to fund the government until early February.

But the Democrats said that they would not support a bill with money at the border.

"President Trump: you will not get your wall," Schumer, DN.Y., said on the floor. "Give up your stop strategy. You do not get the wall today, next week or January 3, when Democrats take control of the House. "

The President – who said that an expenditure program was to include new funds for border security – told reporters Friday that he hoped there would be no" But he is ready to pull out one there is one. "He also tweeted a picture of a" steel slatted fence "project that could be used at the

"It is now up to the Democrats to decide whether or not we should proceed with a closing tonight," Trump said.

Trump tweeted that he had canceled his plan to travel to Florida on Friday then that he was waiting "to see if the Democrats would help us protect the southern border of America!"

Previously, the President had welcomed the vote in the House as a great victory – that of the leaders of the GOP difficult to achieve when the president abruptly gave up tacit support to a Provisional resolution previously approved by the Senate that did not include wall money.

Earlier in the day, the president publicly urged McConnell to deploy the so-called "nuclear option" for the spending package, which refers to a change in the Senate precedent, was passed for the draft The law could be approved with a majority of 51 votes, instead of 60. McConnell's office made it clear that the majority leader would not do that, and several Republican senators said

Trump argued "the option after Senator Steve Daines at Mount Royal and others have called for it.

In the absence of a sudden compromise or an even more improbable change in size, funding of nine members. 15 departments and dozens of agencies will disappear at midnight, resulting in a partial stop at the start of the Christmas holidays.

Both parties were busy blaming Friday morning, in anticipation of this scenario. While Nancy Pelosi, Schumer and the minority leader of the House of Representatives, have already called the outcome of Trump's decision, the US president tweeted on Friday that "it's a democratic closure!" if they do not support the measure before the Senate.

"No matter what happens in the Senate, members of the House of Republicans should be very proud of themselves, and they have returned to Washington to go to Washington to vote for border security. the wall.No Democrat voted yes, and we won big.I am very proud of you! "he tweeted.

Chad Pergram of Fox News, John Roberts, Judson Berger, Matt Richardson and the Associated Press contributed to the writing of this report.

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