A partial US government shutdown looks likely to drag through the Christmas holiday after the Senate adjourned on Saturday with no deal to end an impasse over President Donald Trump’s demand for more funds for border security.
Talks between Senate Democrats and the White House appeared to yield no progress, leading Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to send senators home.
McConnell left open the possibility of a Senate vote should a deal to re-open the government be reached in the coming days, but the logistics of staging votes in the Senate and then the House of Representatives over the holiday would make a quick resolution difficult.
The Senate is scheduled to reconvene on Thursday.
Lawmakers will depart with Trump and Senate Democrats seemingly as entrenched in their positions as ever.
About three-quarters of federal government programs are funded through to Sept 30 next year, but the financing for all others – including the departments of Homeland Security, Justice and Agriculture – expired at midnight.
Federal parks closed and more than 400,000 federal “essential” employees in those agencies will work without pay until the dispute is resolved. Another 380,000 will be “furloughed”, meaning they are put on temporary leave.
