The latest from the U.S. Capitol…
“The Senate was on the verge of rejecting President Donald Trump’s border wall demands on Friday afternoon, leaving the government on course for a partial government shutdown at midnight.
The chamber was set to defeat the House-passed bill, providing $5 billion for the wall and funding the government past Friday. A vote to merely advance to the bill with a simple majority was held open for more than an hour as GOP attendance problems and Sen. Jeff Flake’s (R-Ariz.) opposition put even a procedural vote in jeopardy.
Earlier, Senate Republicans rejected Trump’s entreaties to eliminate the Senate filibuster to fund his border wall, the latest turn in a fraught battle over funding the government.
Trump on Friday said succinctly what’s on everyone’s mind: That congressional Democrats and the White House appear to be in an intractable impasse.
“We are totally prepared for a very long shutdown,” the president told reporters. And 10 days after declaring he’d be “proud” to take the blame for any shutdown in a fight for border security, he said it was now “totally up to the Democrats.” Read more from Burgess Everett at Politico.