Brief government shutdown began before Christmas as the Senate works to advance the House bill

A partial government shutdown began at 12:01 a.m. Saturday morning after Congress failed to pass a measure by the deadline and send it to President Biden’s desk.

However, the Senate is actively working through amendment votes and other considerations to send the measure to Biden. The recess bill is expected to pass the Senate in the coming hours.

The partial shutdown comes only days before Christmas and New Year.

From Thursday it is United States national debt was at $36,167,604,149,955.61 and continued to rise rapidly.

During a partial government shutdown, federal agencies and non-essential services are halted, but some functions deemed “essential” will continue. Certain national security functions, such as border patrol, law enforcement and disaster response, will remain active during the shutdown.

But because the Senate is expected to move the bill promptly, the disruption to the functioning of the government will be minimal, if at all noticeable.

An original deal on a short-term spending bill was released earlier this week, totaling 1,547 pages and including a number of policy provisions and disaster relief.

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But soon after its release, billionaire Elon Musk and other conservative critics publicly blasted the measure, ultimately resulting in its condemnation by President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance.

The original spending measure would have extended the fiscal year 2024 government funding level through March 14 and provided over $100 billion in disaster relief to those affected by storms Helene and Milton in the southeastern United States earlier this year. There was also a $10 billion provision for financial assistance to farmers in the bill.

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The bill’s size, along with several of its other provisions, including a cost-of-living increase for lawmakers, prompted public backlash from Musk and others.

After going back to the drawing board, House Republicans came up with a new proposal Thursday. The revised measure would have extended current funding levels for three months and included a debt limit suspension for two years, at Trump’s request.

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In addition, it had financial relief for farmers and about $110 billion in disaster relief.

But the bill failed in the House of Representatives on Thursday night as Democrats united against it and a sizable group of Republicans also chose to oppose it.

As of Friday morning, there appeared to be no agreement between Democrats and Republicans in Congress to work together on a new bill. In fact, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., said the government would go into a partial shutdown at midnight if Republicans did not revert to the original stopgap law.

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“I’m ready to stay here through Christmas because we will not let Elon Musk run the government,” Murray said in a statement.

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Parliament succeeded in adopting a third version of the spending bill last Friday. It was similar to the second version, including both financial relief for farmers and disaster relief, but did not have the debt ceiling suspension that Trump had been adamant about.

The bill received broad bipartisan support in the House and the green light from Biden when the White House said he would support it. Even Schumer released a statement after the House’s passage, saying he was “confident” it would pass the Senate.