WASHINGTON — The federal government partially shut down early Saturday morning after Democrats and Republicans failed to break their impasse over funding the wall that President Donald Trump wants to build along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Congress was unable to send a government funding bill to the president’s desk by the midnight deadline after Republicans decided to rally around Trump’s $5 billion border wall request and Democrats made clear that they would not budge in their opposition.
The House adjourned several hours before midnight, and senators were told to go home, essentially guaranteeing a partial shutdown a few hours later.
"We're going to have a shutdown. There's nothing we can do about that because we need the Democrats to give us their votes," the president said in a video posted to Twitter late Friday night, adding that the shutdown "hopefully will not last long."
Earlier in the day, Trump had said the White House was prepared for a “very long shutdown.”
It was unclear exactly how long the shutdown would last: hours, days, or even longer — into early January, when Democrats will retake the House majority.
More at NBCNews.com.