The government is STILL shut down

Today marks the 21st day of the government shutdown, which means it’s now ties the previous record.

About the last 21-day shutdown: The shutdown stretched over three weeks in December 1995 and January 1996 as President Bill Clinton and the GOP Congress clashed over federal spending.

The Republicans refused to OK a spending bill because they wanted the Democrats and the White House to — among other things — agree to deep cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.

The shutdown ended only after Clinton bowed to a key Republican demand: Submitting a seven-year balanced budget plan scored by the Congressional Budget Office.

Here’s a look at the other shutdowns in US history:

The Trump administration is actively examining using billions of dollars in unspent Defense Department disaster recovery and military construction funds for the construction of a border wall in the event the President declares a national emergency, according to a US official.

Congress appropriated $14 billion in supplemental funds to repair infrastructure in areas of the country hardest hit by disasters including hurricanes, like Hurricane Maria which slammed Puerto Rico in 2017 and resulted in the deaths of nearly 3,000 people.

In anticipation of a national emergency declaration, the official tells CNN that the Pentagon was asked to provide lists of unspent funds including those earmarked for civil works projects that are part of disaster recovery in Puerto Rico, Texas, California, Florida, and elsewhere. The official said the funds were only recently received. There is more than $13 billion not yet physically spent on the infrastructure repair projects, but that have been promised to these communities.

For instance, more than $2 billion planned for projects in Puerto Rico has not yet been spent. More than $4.5 billion for projects in Texas, including those related to 2017’s Hurricane Harvey, has also not been spent.

Read more here.

Research engineer Robert Conrad Rorie visits "help room" in Mountain View, California.

A portion of a Ramada Inn in Mountain View, California, was converted into a “help room” Thursday for furloughed employees from NASA’s Ames Research Center.

Members of the Ames Federal Employees Union received $100 for visiting the assistance center, CNN affiliate KPIX reported.

Research engineer Robert Conrad Rorie went to the center Thursday morning and told the news station the shutdown is causing him stress.

The government shutdown could soon put the immigration enforcement arm of the Department of Homeland Security at risk of running out of funds and unable to pay contract dues.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is tasked with, among other things, detaining and deporting undocumented immigrants in the United States. To do so, the agency contracts with private companies and county jails across the country. But, with shutdown talks at an impasse and no additional funding in sight, ICE is forced to work with what it already has in its coffers.

Keep reading.

President Trump rejected a working outline by small group of Senate Republicans to reopen the government, according to two people directly involved.

The idea would have reopened the government as congressional committees worked through a deal that would have included border wall funding in exchange for temporary safeguards for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and temporary protected status programs.

The senators presented the idea to Vice President Mike Pence this afternoon. They were told later the President would not accept the idea given its immediate reliance on stop-gap funding to reopen the government as negotiations over the wall funding continued, the sources said.

Pence, talking to reporters today, said the President has been “clear” wanting to wait and see how the Supreme Court rules on DACA before addressing the issue.

The Senate has again passed a bill ensure furloughed federal workers will get back pay.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke on the floor, saying he talked to President Trump a short time ago and Trump assured him he would sign the bill.

The Senate then passed it on a voice vote.

The measure initially passed the Congress around Dec. 25, but they had to do it again in the new Congress.

This came to a head today because Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, objected to the Senate adjourning for the weekend, a day before furloughed workers are going to miss their first paychecks. 

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a key Trump ally, is calling on President Trump to “use emergency powers to fund the construction of a border wall/barrier,” adding, “I hope it works.”

In his letter, Graham said that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s refusal to grant Trump money for the border wall “virtually ends the congressional path to funding” it.

The House passed another spending bill Thursday to reopen the Department of Agriculture — which runs the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP or food stamps, as well as the Food and Drug Administration.

The Democratic-led House passed the bill, with a vote of 243-183. Ten Republicans supported the measure.

It’s the third of four bills the House is bringing to the floor this week to keep the spotlight on the partial government shutdown and put pressure on the Senate to act.

However, each bill is expected to be dead on arrival in the Senate, and also faces the threat of a presidential veto.

One thing to note: Despite the lapse in funding, the Department of Agriculture will continue providing food stamps to millions of Americans through February, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced Tuesday.

The House passed a spending bill Thursday to reopen the Department of Transportation and Department of Housing and Urban Development, despite an improbable fate in the Senate and the threat of a presidential veto.

The vote was 244-180.

Twelve Republicans joined with Democrats to support the bill, four more than on Wednesday, when the House passed a bill to reopen the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service.

They’ll soon vote on a spending bill to reopen the Department of Agriculture —which runs the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP or food stamps, as well as the Food and Drug Administration.

William Striffler's pay stub shows $0.00 net pay as a result of the partial government shutdown.

William Striffler, an air traffic controller and local union president at Newark Liberty International Airport, has been working without pay as a result of the partial government shutdown. He shared with CNN an image of his first empty paycheck since the shutdown began.

Air traffic controllers are just a small fraction of the overall federal workforce that’s been impacted by the shutdown. Earlier Thursday, a group representing them were cosignatories on a letter to President Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, appealing for the government to be reopened.

Yet another move to find compromise to end the government shutdown appeared to stall today.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of the senators who tried to reach across the aisle, was at a loss today as he told reporters that he sees no pathway forward.

Graham said that while he was hopeful about a proposal he had put together that included measures Democrats might agree to, he said that it fell flat.  

Other senators said they recognized that the only way out of the standoff is for President Trump, House Speaker Pelosi, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to reach a deal that would be acceptable to them and that could pass the House and Senate and be signed into law. 

“The President and Schumer and Pelosi are going to have to get together and say, ‘this is what we agree on.’ Otherwise, we can create a forum. It goes nowhere,” said Republican Sen. Richard Shelby who chairs the Appropriations Committee and who sat in talks with the compromise group. 

“You create a lot of noise. You create some optics, but you do you create substance? I don’t think so,” he said about the Graham effort.

Vice President Mike Pence, speaking to reporters, again blamed Democrats for the stall in shutdown negotiations.

“From the very first day of this partial government shutdown, this administration has been making an effort to negotiate, to address the crisis on our southern border and to end the shutdown. And the American people deserve to know that every day since, the Democrats have refused to negotiate,” he said Thursday.

Trump has still not made a decision on declaring a national emergency, Pence said

Pence, however, wholly defended the President’s ability to declare the emergency.

“The President believes that he has an absolute right to declare a national emergency under his authority as President of the United States,” he said.

Pence said that the “facts argue otherwise” when he hears that this crisis is manufactured. Pence used the word “crisis” at least a dozen times and defended the administration’s use of it. “This is not a manufactured crisis. It’s not,” he said.

A note on the term “crisis”: Part of the White House counsel’s office review of declaring a national emergency has included laying the groundwork for a legal defense of the move, according to officials familiar with the matter. That has included advising the President’s aides on ramping up talk of the humanitarian and security “crisis” — a characterization that administration lawyers could use later in court to defend a national emergency.

Dan Gabor was at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport for a shutdown protest led by Transportation Security Administration workers today.

Protesters carried signs and chanted outside terminals:

Gabor said he is not a government employee himself, but he came to the protest to stand with those who are not getting a paycheck.

Elise Durham, the director of communications for the airport, told CNN the protest with TSA workers was scheduled, and organizers had a permit with about 25 people participating. She added that the protest was not affecting security lines, flights or any other travel. 

Here’s footage of the protest:

Many federal government workers won’t receive a paycheck tomorrow.

Dallas Federal Reserve employees took to the streets today to protest against the shutdown and demand that lawmakers reopen the government.

CNN affiliate KTVK’s Steve Pickett took this video of the protest.

Here’s what it looked like:

President Trump just announced he will cancel his “very important” scheduled trip to Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum later this month “because of the Democrats intransigence on Border Security and the great importance of Safety for our Nation.”

Here’s the tweet:

View of a section of the new border fence between Mexico and the US in Mexicali, Baja California state, Mexico on March 10, 2018.

A defense official who follows border wall issues very closely pointed out there are a number of issues the Pentagon and White House must resolve in order to make a possible national emergency declaration workable.

As CNN has reported, the Department of Defense, even without a declaration, is already working to identify the funds that are not yet under contract for military construction projects. 

How they’re planning to the fund the wall: Defense Department officials told CNN that the Pentagon is planning a figure of about $2.5 billion in funds they believe they can tap to support construction of a border wall if Trump declares an emergency and orders the military to build a wall. Those funds fall under the “unobligated” pool of funds, which means the funds are earmarked but have no signed contracts signed for spending that money. Anything beyond that would require the cancellation of  existing military construction projects, which might come with costly termination fees.

If Trump wants additional funds from projects that are already in contract, he’d have to cancel projects like a fire station at Quantico, child development at Joint Base Andrews or Navy Seal training facilities improvements for combat training.

The official said one concern is that once the money goes to a wall: How do you get re-funded by Congress for the construction of these other projects so readiness is not impacted?

If a decision is made for a national emergency, the Pentagon will offer different courses of action to proceed.

Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of a Catholic Charities relief center, greets immigrants recently released from detention through 'catch and release' immigration policy at the centre on June 17, 2018 in McAllen, Texas.

The “Pope’s favorite nun” Sister Norma Pimentel will be participating in roundtable with President Trump in Rio Grande this afternoon, according to her spokesperson.

Pimentel’s spokesperson Brenda Riojas Nettles said her message will be: “What it always is, taking care of the people in front of her.”

Pimentel wrote an op-ed addressed to Trump on Jan. 9, in which she said “regardless of who we are and where we came from, we remain part of the human family and are called to live in solidarity with one another.”

In 2015, Pope Francis personally thanked Pimentel for her work on the border, saying “I want to thank you.”

Then the Pope, 78, said something she could never have imagined: “I’ll tell you one other thing. Is it inappropriate for the Pope to say this? I love you all very much.“

Federal government employee unions, from across all government agencies, are unifying across the US to demand the government shutdown end.

Some of the states with rallies include Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Florida, Utah, Colorado, New York, California, North Carolina, Illinois and Texas.

In Denver, hundreds of federal employees, in addition to their friends and families, are expected to rally.

And in Chicago, rallies could become a weekly occurrence (if the shutdown continues).

Part of the White House counsel’s office review of declaring a national emergency has included laying the groundwork for a legal defense of the move, according to officials familiar with the matter.

That has included advising the President’s aides on ramping up talk of the humanitarian and security “crisis” — a characterization that administration lawyers could use later in court to defend a national emergency. The lawyers have suggested the more times the term is used, the more citations they will have in filing a legal defense. 

Trump and others in the White House began using that term more frequently over the past week.

The lawyers are looking for other ways to illustrate that an emergency is underway, recognizing a declaration would be challenged by Democrats. That has also included hosting lawmakers in the Situation Room for talks, a setting that lends to the sense of crisis. 

The counsel’s office review of the emergency powers as it relates to the border began in the middle of last week, officials said. Trump said today his legal team has told him he has the “absolute right” to declare an emergency.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said House Democrats would continue to vote on spending bills next week to reopen shuttered parts of the government.

Talking about yesterday’s meeting, Pelosi described Trump as “un-presidential” and accused his team of staging the event.

“I don’t know that the President wants the wall. I think he just wants to debate the wall,” she added.

Asked how the House would respond if Trump declared a national emergency, Pelosi said “let’s see what he does.”

“If and when the President does that, you’ll find out how we would react,” she said, predicting Trump will have problems on his own side of the aisle “for exploiting this situation in a way that enhances his power.”

“I don’t think he really wants a solution,” she later added. “I think he loves the distraction.”

A group of government employees have gathered at the IRS building in New York City to protest the government shutdown.

Many are holding signs. Some of them read….

Watch more:

Nearly three dozen major aviation groups, including unions representing airline pilots, air traffic control operators, and air medical operators, have sent President Donald Trump, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a letter explaining the many ways the shutdown is affecting various aspects of the aviation system, from TSA to FAA to air traffic control.

The letter implores them to “act now” because the shutdown is “hampering our ability to function effectively” and has “inflicted real damage.”

Here’s who signed the letter:

The city of Minneola in central Florida is deferring federal workers’ bills and waving late fees until after the shutdown is over.

“We understand the federal government shutdown is beyond your control and a difficult time for you and your families,” the city wrote on Facebook.

The city is deferring water, wastewater, reclaimed water, irrigation water, stormwater, and solid waste fees and waiving all late fees.

The nearby city of in Mascotte, Florida, also will not charge late fees if furloughed workers miss their bill payments.

“We will not disconnect a resident who is working for one of the closed federal agencies and we will not be charging late fees,” Jim Gleason, the city manager of Mascotte said. “They will need to pay the bill, but we will work with them on a plan to get caught when they start to get paid.”

President Trump said his trip to Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum is up in the air as the government shutdown continues.

“Well, I intended to go and speak in front of the world financial community in Davos. That’s still on, but if shutdown continues, which is in a while from now, if the shutdown continues, I won’t go,” he told reporters Thursday.

“We have a great story to tell” the world leaders, Trump said, citing the “best job numbers we’ve ever had in many ways.”

Watch more:

President Trump said that he may declare a national emergency over the southern border amid an impasse with Democrats over the need for a wall.

“I have the absolute right to declare a national emergency,” Trump said after stating, correctly, that other presidents have used it, some fairly often. “I haven’t done it yet. I may do it. If this doesn’t work out, probably I will do it. I would almost say definitely,” the President said.

When asked why he hadn’t already declared it, Trump said, “Because I would like to do the deal through Congress, and because it makes sense to do it through Congress.”

He said “the easy route” would be to simply call the national emergency.

Why this is significant: By declaring a national emergency, Trump allies hope he can then find the funds needed to build the wall without Congressional authorization. Senior Republicans, however, have cautioned against it.

Senate Majority Whip John Thune earlier on Thursday raised concerns about that possibility, saying it could get tied up in the courts and would set a concerning precedent.

“Frankly I’m not crazy about going down that path,” Thune told CNN. “Inevitably, I suspect it probably gets challenged in court.”

President Trump, departing the White House of his way to the US border, said Republicans are “extremely united” amid the shutdown unlike ever before.

Trump added that there will not be “any breakaway” because Republicans “know we need border security.”

But not every GOP lawmaker is on the same page right now: At last count three GOP senators — Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Cory Gardner — have called for an end to the shutdown. Another six have voiced concerns. And eight Republican representatives joined a House vote last night to reopen IRS and other financial agencies.

More than two dozen unions, representing workers across the federal government, will rally in Washington today.

The rally, organized by The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, is set to begin at the AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, with a march to the White House.

Here’s the handout from AFL-CIO:

Passengers wait in a TSA line at JFK airport on Wednesday in New York City.

Despite the government shutdown, millions of travelers still pass through the country’s airports every day.

But despite news of understaffing, delayed payments and stress brought on by government furloughs, it’s still safe to fly.

Here’s the bottom line: No one wants air travel to be unsafe. Not travelers, not government employees, not agencies, not air carriers, no one. To that end, while a government shutdown affects a lot of aspects of air transportation, safety is prioritized above all.

However, just because air travel is still safe now does not mean that a prolonged government shutdown wouldn’t have a potentially dangerous impact. If the shutdown drags on, eventually there could be problems.

Issues like understaffing and employees quitting will only get worse with time. Other issues that aren’t a problem now may be in the future.

For instance, while the government is shut down pilots can’t get their licenses renewed and new air traffic controllers and other critical positions can’t be trained to assume their roles.

Read more from CNN’s AJ Willingham

President Trump just tweeted that support for his long-promised border wall is “even greater than anyone would know.”

Here are the facts: While the border wall may be popular with his base, Americans have been consistently opposed to his idea of a border wall. Before the shutdown, they opposed it by about a 10-to-20 point margin. There’s no sign that’s changed in the latest polling.

President Trump this morning also tweeted about the “GREAT unity” among Congressional Republicans amid the shutdown — but that’s also inaccurate.

Where GOP lawmakers stand: At least count three GOP senators — Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Cory Gardner — have called for an end to the shutdown. Another six have voiced concerns. And eight Republican representatives joined a House vote last night to reopen IRS and other financial agencies.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer just tweeted that he will demand Majority Leader Mitch McConnell take up House bills to re-open government.

The House passed a financial services spending bill on Wednesday despite the fact that the measure is not expected to go anywhere in the Senate and faces a White House veto threat.

Here’s Schumer’s tweet:

About the House legislation: Last night, the House passed the financial services spending bill, the first of four appropriations bills the House will vote on this week in an attempt to reopen shuttered parts of government. 

The vote was 240-188.

Eight Republicans joined with Democrats to pass the bill. That’s one more Republican than the number of Republicans who supported a similar bill last week. The vast majority of Republicans still object to the bill. 

The eight Republicans were:

We’re 20 days into the shutdown, and the leaders of a divided federal government have reached total breakdown.

The dramatic theater of yesterday aside, with each passing day it has become increasingly clear that President Trump won’t — and thinks he can’t — buckle on his wall demand. And Democrats won’t — and think they can’t — buckle on their refusal to give him money for the wall.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of federal workers miss their first full paychecks tomorrow. This is, to be blunt, a mess. 

Bottom line: Republican aides are increasingly saying the only way out is for the President to declare the national emergency, claim victory, fight it out in the courts and let the government re-open.

But this plan isn’t set yet: The White House has not told Hill Republicans that’s they way they are going to go.

It increasingly looks like President Trump could declare that there is a national emergency on the border and then sign the spending bills to open up the government, according to a White House official.

Talks with Democrats hit a wall Wednesday after Nancy Pelosi told the President she would not support building a barrier structure on the U.S.-Mexico border. Officials inside the administration increasingly feel like this is one of few options. 

A note on possible timing: In an unusual move, Pat Cipollone, the White House counsel, is traveling with the President to the southern border today. However, Trump is not expected to declare a national emergency while there, though people close to the President caution this could change.

And remember: There has been serious debate internally about the legal ramifications of Trump declaring a national emergency so he can build his border wall without congressional approval. 

“I have the absolute right to do national emergency if I want,” Trump told reporters Wednesday. 

While it’s not certain Trump will declare an emergency, the White House likes being able to hold the card over Democrats who they say have refused to compromise or even negotiate. 

White House officials, even those that feel they’ve “won” the shutdown messaging so far, say they believe things will take a turn starting Friday, when hundreds of thousands of federal workers won’t receive their paychecks. Things could only get worse on Saturday, when news outlets and television networks will be able to declare this the longest continuous shutdown in US history. 

View of a section of the new border fence between Mexico and the US in Mexicali, Baja California state, Mexico on March 10, 2018.

President Trump is bringing White House counsel Pat Cipollone on his trip to the southern border tomorrow, sources tell CNN.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Kevin K. McAleenan, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, will also join the President.

There is no indication as of now that Cipollone is heading there because the President is going to declare national emergency during the trip.

One thing to note: The White House counsel doesn’t often travel on presidential trips.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham described a meeting he held this afternoon in his office with fellow GOP members of Congress as “somewhat hopeful.”

The South Carolina lawmaker said Republicans had a good meeting, but he added that the discussions are in their infancy and there wasn’t a breakthrough. (Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin also stopped by Graham’s office to talk.) 

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska, were among those who attended meeting.

Murkowski said that it’s always good when like minded lawmakers get together to negotiate, but she didn’t add any details about what was discussed. 

Senate Minority Whip Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) reacts as he speaks to members of the media after he returned to the US Capitol from a meeting at the White House Jan. 9, 2019 in Washington, DC.

Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin, a Democrat, attended President Trump’s White House meeting today and said it appeared the President didn’t want to be there.

The issue of Trump declaring a national emergency to secure funding for his border wall didn’t come up in the meeting, which last 20 minutes.

Durbin said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell remained silent during the short meeting. 

President Trump was in a chummy mood when he entered the Situation Room this afternoon, according to a source familiar with how things unfolded.

He passed out candy and told congressional leaders they would find a letter at each of their chairs that laid out the administration’s shutdown priorities. This was an updated list after the back-and-forth with Democrats over the weekend, CNN is told. 

Then, with the letters stating their position in front of them, White House officials asked Democrats where their position stood.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi informed the President she was concerned about ports of entry, something which he agreed with. Trump said there was money allotted in the administration’s priority list that beefed up the ports of entry. But Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, also seated at the table, interjected to say that even if the ports of entry eliminated all drug smuggling, smugglers would find another way in, which is why the barrier structure is important. 

That’s when things became heated. Pelosi and Trump argued how there are women with electrical tape on their bodies smuggling drugs across the border, coming across where there is no barrier and not at the ports of entry. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer jumped in to stress the importance of opening up the government and then negotiating on border security funding form there. Trump then asked Democrats if he opened up the parts of the government that are shut down, if Pelosi would be willing to build a barrier. She declined. He left. 

After Trump left the room, Pelosi and Schumer got up to leave. Vice President Mike Pence then asked for a counter offer from Democrats — asking what are they willing to work on because then the White House would have a better idea to move forward. They didn’t offer one, something that has frustrated White House officials since they first privately offered less than $5.6 billion the day after the government first shut down. 

Where things stand: A White House official says no other meeting with Pelosi has been scheduled at this time, and a national emergency declaration is still on the table. 

The House passed the financial serves spending bill on Wednesday, the first of four appropriations bills the House will vote on this week in an attempt to reopen shuttered parts of government.  

The vote was 240-188.

One thing to note: Eight Republicans joined with Democrats to pass the bill. 

That’s one more Republican than the number of Republicans who supported a similar bill last week, so it’s not exactly a surge in Republicans breaking ranks, as some Democrats were hoping. The vast majority of Republicans still object to the bill, which is not expected to be taken up by the Senate. 

Upon returning to the Capitol Hill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi described the moment President Trump walked out, from her perspective.

“The President stomped out of of the meeting when he said to me, ‘Will you support a wall?’ And I said ‘no,’” she said.

“Now they’re trying to mischaracterize what he actually said,” Pelosi added. “But that’s par for the course for going to the White House in the first place.”

Asked how today’s negotiation ranked in terms of other high stakes negotiations she’s been in during her career, Pelosi said:

President Trump delivers his last State of the Union on Jan. 30, 2018.

With no apparent end in sight for the government shutdown, some White House officials are growing increasingly concerned about how this will affect President Trump’s message at the State of The Union speech later this month.

One source close to the White House says that by the time the President gives the speech in late January, the ripple effect of what could be the longest shutdown in history will be strongly felt outside of just the federal workers not getting paychecks. (We’re currently on day 19, and the longest ever was 21 days.)

The President’s message would potentially be minimized by the fact that people would not want to hear about what to do in next fiscal year.

The source says one of the White House speechwriters working on the address has been given very little direction about what to write about. That’s unusual: These types of discussions about the State of the Union speech normally happen in late November or December.

President Trump shakes hands with Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) (2nd R) as (L-R) Sen. John Thune (R-SD), Vice President Mike Pence, Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) look on at the US Capitol after the weekly Republican Senate policy luncheon Jan. 09, 2019 in Washington, DC.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters that his chief concern is Democrats’ blocking action in the Senate in order to protest the shutdown.

“I know this is not what you’re interested in, but what I’m interested in is there’s no rationale for shutting down the Senate,” he said, citing stats about progress in the chamber during the last shutdown.

“No matter how you feel about the border dispute there’s absolutely no basis for shutting down the Senate,” McConnell said.

Asked about the next steps, the Kentucky lawmaker stood by the President and the Republican caucus.

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin has stopped by GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham’s office to talk. (Note: We believe they will speak about the shutdown, but it’s unclear who is all coming.)

Asked what he was doing there, Manchin said this: “I was invited by a friend.” 

It’s hard to say if this is a serious talk at this point given the drama that just unfolded at the White House, the uncertainty about what President Trump would even accept short of $5.7 billion for a wall and whether the two sides could find a way forward. It’s too early to say anything at this point.

The bottom line: Two men, from two different parties who have helped negotiate an end to these shutdowns before, are meeting. 

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer just returned to the Capitol and said that President Trump made the demand for “the wall” — not border security, as the GOP said. When he asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi if she could give that to him if he reopened the government, she said No.

Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin said that at the beginning of the meeting, Trump said, “I question why we are even doing this meeting.”

Trump threatened to walk out of the last meeting, too, but sat back down for 45 minutes in that meeting.

Vice President Mike Pence reiterated President Trump’s position that “there will be no deal without a wall” and urged Democrats to “come back to the table.”

That’s even as he acknowledged that Trump literally left the table and walked out of his meeting with Democrats on Wednesday.

“I think the President thought there was no longer any reason to (be) talking at this meeting,” Pence said.

A note of color: Pence insisted that Trump never raised his voiced or slammed his hand on the table, as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer suggested.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy called Democrats’ behavior during these negotiations “embarrassing” and urged them to “get back into the room,” even though President Trump is the one who walked out.

He told reporters, “The way they have displayed and their behavior is embarrassing to me.”

House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer’s account of the congressional meeting with President Trump was ” totally different than what took place.”

McCarthy said Trump wanted to focus on problem-solving — and even brought sweets for the lawmakers.

“When we entered the room, the President, again calling all the leaders together to solve this problem. Even brought a little candy for everybody,” McCarthy said.

Moments ago, Schumer said Trump walked out of the meeting when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to agree to fund his long-promised border wall.

“We saw a temper tantrum because he couldn’t get his way,” Schumer said.

Vice President Mike Pence, speaking moments after congressional leadership meeting, blasted Democrats for their unwillingness to “engage in good faith negotiations.”

The Vice President said Trump asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that if she would be willing to fund his border wall if he reopened the government.

Pence then added, “When she said ‘no,’ the President said ‘good-bye.’”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that President Trump walked out of their meeting when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to agree to fund his long-promised border wall.

Schumer insisted that Democrats want to reach agreement with the President.

“We’ve already offered the President our proposal, which has sat on his desk for several weeks, but this was really, really unfortunate and in my judgment somewhat unbecoming of a presidency,” he said.

While Schumer was speaking to reporters, Trump tweeted his meeting with them was “total waste of time.”

President Trump just tweeted that he left a meeting with “Chuck and Nancy,” calling it “a total waste of time.”

See it:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, emerging from a White House meeting with Trump and other congressional leaders, said the President is “insensitive” to how the shutdown is impacting furloughed workers.

“Many people federal workers will not be receiving their paychecks and what that means in their lives is tragic in terms of their credit rating, paying their mortgage, paying their rent, paying their car payment, paying their children’s tuition,” she said.

She added this:

Republican Sen. Richard Shelby left today’s policy lunch today unsure how much longer the shutdown will last, likening the situation to a “circus.” 

Asked long does he anticipate the shutdown to last, Shelby said, “it could be tomorrow, it could be weeks, it could be days.”

He mentioned that President Trump did not talk about a national emergency today and noted the President did not give indication of what next steps are. 

“I don’t think he’s going to negotiate here with us today or in the caucus with everybody going on, but I think the Democrats are going to have to show that they want to have a resolution to this, too. To be honest, I’ve worked for a year to try to avoid all of this. I want to continue to do our jobs,” Shelby said.

Finally, on whether or not he would be willing to support opening individual federal agencies before reaching a deal, he dismissed the idea as “futile,” saying that the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would not bring something like that to a vote for lack of support.

“The truth is, the leader has said unequivocally, as I understand it, that he’s not going to bring up anything the President won’t sign,” Shelby said. “The President says he’s not going to sign that. So why do we want to waste our time trying to do something that’s futile?”

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La)

Sen. John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, told reporters President Trump was “resolute” during a meeting with the GOP members of Congress.

The lawmaker put the onus on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, claiming that she hates Trump and “until she can flip those emotions it’s going to be hard to make any progress.”

President Trump arrives at the US Capitol on Jan. 09, 2019 in Washington, DC.

President Trump acknowledged Wednesday that illegal border crossings are at historically lower levels, even as he continued to argue the need for a border wall.

Why it matters: Trump’s comments undercut the White House’s efforts to stress the increase in illegal border crossings in recent months and portray the situation as a “crisis,” even as the overall figures remain near historic lows.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska, said she raised concerns to President Trump about the impact of the shutdown on federal workers.

“I shared my support for an need for border security … but a recognition that when the government is shutdown there are consequences and people are starting to feel those consequences,” she said.

Trump told her that Republicans should remain unified, Murkowski said.

She said it was respectful.

President Trump, leaving a meeting with Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill, touted “solidarity” within his party.

“The Republican Party, I can say, and I just left an hour meeting, we had a great time actually. There was no discussion about anything other than solidarity. we want national security and border security for our country,” he said.

This is similar to what he said going into the meeting.

“We have great Republican support as you know, you know, you’re just making that up. But we have tremendous Republican support,” he said on his way in, when asked if he was worried about growing GOP concern about the shutdown. “There’s tremendous Republican support. Unwavering.”

But remember: At least three GOP senators — Susan Collins, Cory Gardner and Lisa Murkowski — are calling for an end to the shutdown. Several more have started to voice concerns.

President Trump said on Wednesday that he thinks a lot of the furloughed workers and others going without pay “agree” with his shutdown strategy, though he offered no names or specifics.

“I think they have been terrific. These are terrific patriots. A lot of them agree with what I’m doing. And I hope to have the situation work out. But they want security in our country and so do I. That’s all we want. We want security, we want common sense, we want security in our country,” he said.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday again stressed the need for southern border wall to stem the flow of illegal immigration.

“They say it’s a medieval solution, a wall. It’s true, because it worked then and it works even better now,” Trump said during a bill signing event in the Oval Office.

Keep reading.

 President Trump just arrived on Capitol Hill to meet with Republican lawmakers.

Asked if he was worried about the growing number of Republicans who are concerned as the shutdown drags into day 19, Trump dismissed any concerns, saying repeatedly that his administration has “great Republican support.” 

He continued: “Last night was a big victory for the Republicans but it was really a big victory for America for our country. The Democrats have lost support. There’s tremendous Republican support. Unwavering.”

Asked how long the shutdown will last, Trump said, “Whatever it takes.”

At least three GOP senators — Susan Collins, Cory Gardner and Lisa Murkowski — are calling for an end to the shutdown. Several more have started to voice concerns.

President Trump spoke further on the possibility of a national emergency declaration today.

“I think we might work a deal. And if we don’t we may go that route. I have the absolute authority to do a national emergency if I want,” he said.

But he added:

President Trump speaks to the media after signing anti-human trafficking legislation in the Oval Office on Jan. 9, 2019 in Washington, DC.

President Trump offered a candid take on his political situation during remarks on border security Wednesday, saying frankly his base would abandon him if he reopens parts of government without securing funding for a border wall.

During a meeting in the Situation Room with top Democrats and Republicans last week, Trump told Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer he would look “foolish” if he accepted Democrats’ proposals to reopen the government.

But he hasn’t said as much in public until Wednesday.

He went on, saying “The second ones (to hit me) would be the House and the third ones would be, frankly, my base and a lot of Republicans out there and a lot of Democrats that want to see border security.”

Later, in an exchange with ABC’s Jon Karl, Trump continued to lay out his political predicament.

Asked why not open the parts of the government not related to border security, Trump fired back: “Do you think I should do that, Jon? … Do you think I should just sign?”

“I’m asking you, would you do that if you were in my position?” Trump said. “If you would do that, you should never be in this position because you’d never get anything done.”

President Trump on Wednesday again stressed the need for a wall on the southern border to stem the flow of illegal immigration.

The President also signaled an openness to a broader immigration deal and said the shutdown could be a “blessing in disguise” that would lead to a broader immigration deal.

“I would love to see a big immigration bill that would really take care of this situation,” Trump said. “Right now, we have a problem and we have to take care of this. But we would like to see real immigration reform in this country.”

Despite those comments, the White House has yet to signal a willingness to reaching a broader deal that would include both funding for the wall and protections for undocumented immigrants, like DACA recipients. The White House previously walked away from such a deal last year.

President Trump suggested a day after his primetime Oval Office address that he may use executive authority to secure funds for a border wall if negotiations break down with Democrats.

“I really believe the Democrats and the Republicans are working together. I think something will happen, I hope,” he said during a bill signing event in the Oval Office. “Otherwise we’ll go about it in a different manner.”

In his remarks on Tuesday, Trump stopped short of declaring a national emergency to fund his promised border wall. But he’s not ruled it out and is still mulling that option, according to aides.

Trump said on Wednesday the border remains a sore spot on an otherwise cheery record.

“We’re having some very good times in our country. We’re doing very well except for the border,” he said. “The border is a big problem. It’s a very dangerous problem.”

“So many good things are happening, but we have to take care of the border and we’re all working together,” he said.

President Trump, speaking from the Oval Office Wednesday, showed some optimism over ongoing talks to reopen the government.

Lawmakers have yet to reach an agreement over Trump’s funding demands for his long-promised border wall.

Trump will meet with congressional leaders at 3 p.m. ET today on the shutdown.

A number of union and trade leaders from organizations repping HUD and FEMA joined House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer today for a press conference with furloughed workers.

Pelosi opened up the press event with by thanking them for their work and noting federal workers are the “backbone of Democracy.”

“The reality is the president could end the Trump Shutdown and reopen the government today and he should have,” Pelosi said.

She previewed a bit of the meeting today at the White House, saying that Dems are willing to move forward with the bill that the Senate has already voted on.

Schumer made a few remarks afterwards, hammering on the “temper tantrum” that Trump is having over his wall. “I don’t think he persuaded a soul with his talk last night,” Schumer said.

Some of the federal workers standing behind him nodded vigorously when Schumer said they want border security, but a wall is not the answer.

David Cox, president of American Federation of Government Employees, also gave an impassioned appeal: “We want this shutdown, lockout, to end this very minute!”

Eric Young, who represents corrections officers, warned “blood will be on your hands” if something happens to a corrections officer while resources are stretched thin.

Another woman representing HUD employees said that some people are facing evictions.

“What the President said last night was not factual,” Pelosi said, striking down Trump’s repeated claims that Dems don’t want border security, saying plainly, “We all want border security.”

Sen. Susan Collins says she hopes today’s meeting with President Trump “can offer some constructive compromises on how we can get out of this impasse.”

After being spotted in Capitol hallways huddling quietly with GOP colleagues Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Lindsey Graham, Maine Sen. Susan Collins told CNN she hopes today senators “can offer some constructive compromises on how we can get out of this impasse.”

Her comments were made in light of President Donald Trump’s visit later Wednesday to Capitol Hill.

Flood waters are seen around a home in Spring Lake, North Carolina, in 2018 after Hurricane Florence.

Though hurricane season runs from June through November, it is during the “off-season” when forecasters and researchers refine and improve their forecasting models, methods and techniques, allowing them to enhance the accuracy of storm predictions.

With the partial government shutdown in its third week, and no end in sight, much of the research and development, which the National Hurricane Center relies on to improve hurricane forecasts, is in jeopardy. The main American weather model is also in need of upgrades.

While there is no good time for a government shutdown to bring the work of so many federal workers to a halt, “it is much worse for this to happen during the off-season,” said Eric Blake, a hurricane specialist with the National Hurricane Center.

From December through early May, the center’s forecasters work with researchers and scientists at other governmental agencies to tweak and upgrade the models that are used to project the storms — and many of these workers are currently furloughed.

Read more from CNN’s Brandon Miller here.

Susan Collins is one of three GOP senators who have called for an end to the shutdown.

President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence will meet with key senators on the Hill in today in an effort to shore up their support. We’re watching where the GOP senators stand. Here’s the latest:

GOP senators calling for an end to the shutdown

GOP senators voicing concern

This isn’t a tipping point (yet): The President still has a critical mass of Congressional Republicans behind him — and the congressional leadership is firmly behind the White House on this. They are not at a tipping point yet, and the vast majority of Republicans are more frustrated with Democrats refusing to give an inch on the wall than the White House. 

But the longer the shut down goes with no off-ramp (and the more senators and House members hear from their constituents), in the words of a House GOP leadership aide: “Members are only going to get more pissed off.”  

And remember: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell controls the floor — and what legislation reached it. He can have a dozen members “voice concerns,” but if he doesn’t want to change course, none of it matters. As a leader, he takes pains not to put his conference in a bad spot, and going against the president on this would do just that. His aides make clear his position remains unchanged. 

Volunteer Alexandra Degen cleans a restroom at Joshua Tree National Park on January 4. The National Park Service has now said it will tap into visitor fees to keep parks running through shutdown.

Keep a close eye on all the ways the Trump administration is attempting to mitigate the pain of the shutdown — it gives you the best possible window into the state of play.

Here are a few examples:

The bottom line: The administration is actively (and sometimes with questionable legal basis) stepping in to prevent the very things that often force fed-up lawmakers to the table amid a stream of angry constituents.

At the moment, that really only means one thing: At least according to a senior GOP official with a key role in all of this: “They are in this for the long haul.”

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders was just asked why the President didn’t declare a national emergency despite describing a “crisis” at the border. She said it’s still a possibility

Congressional leaders will go to the White House at 3 p.m. ET today to meet with President Trump on the government shutdown.

Since parts of the government shut down last month, the Trump administration officials and lawmakers have met multiple times, but they haven’t reached a deal. Vice President Mike Pence led two days of talks over the weekend, which did not result in a breakthrough.

Today’s White House meeting comes a day after the President made a televised appeal to Americans for his long-promised border wall, offering familiar warnings but scant detail on how he will negotiate an end to the shutdown.

Tomorrow, Trump is will visit the US-Mexico border to “meet with those on the front lines of the national security and humanitarian crisis,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders announced earlier this week on Twitter.

It’s the 19th day of the government shutdown, and talks are still static.

The bottom line positions of the leaders from both sides don’t just remain unchanged — they appear to be further entrenched.

Still, leaders and lawmakers will meet today on the shutdown. Here are the key events we’re watching:

Some members of Congress are refuse their paychecks in a show of solidarity with federal employees affected by the shutdown.

So far, 64 members of Congress say they will turn down their paychecks during the partial government shutdown, according to social media posts and statements reviewed by CNN.

That comprises 13 senators and 51 representatives, with members from both parties making up a similar proportion of those going without pay. Fourteen representatives passing on pay are newly elected and were sworn in this year.

Read the full list of lawmakers here.

With about 41% of the US Food and Drug Administration off the job due to the government shutdown, some agency employees worry about the safety and health of the American public.

“With the shutdown, surveillance is not effective. They are doing the bare minimum to get by,” said Geneve Parks, a chemist who tests pharmaceuticals at an FDA lab in Detroit. She says she loves her work but is furloughed along with about half of the 34 to 40 people who work in her lab. Now, she estimates that there are only five people in the chemistry division.

“It’s terrifying. What if there’s an outbreak?” Parks asked. “What would the agency do if something happened and they don’t have the staff to handle it?”

Keep reading.

Republican Congressman Will Hurd — oftentimes a thorn in his party’s side as he breaks on issues — told CNN that he more or less did not find the Vice President Mike Pence’s argument persuasive in a caucus meeting today.

Asked how he would vote on the individual spending bills that Pelosi plans to bring to the floor this week, Hurd demurred.

“We’re still evaluating. My opinion is very simple: we should not negotiate with shutdowns, shutdowns don’t help anybody,” he said.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska, joined calls today to reopen the rest of the federal government before the funding fight over the border wall is resolved.

“I am one who is amendable to a process that would allow for those appropriations bills that have concluded some time ago that they be enacted into law — whether it’s the Department of Interior or the IRS. I’d like to see that,” she said.

Murkowski said she supports a legislative package made up of six full-year spending bills to reopen other shuttered parts of the federal government.

Senate Democrats blocked action on a bill unrelated to the ongoing government shutdown Tuesday, in protest of President Donald Trump’s demands to fund a controversial border wall with Mexico in exchange for reopening the agencies. 

The move escalated an already tense situation between the parties as Democrats weighed whether to extend their objections to all legislation until the impasse is broken, something that could cripple the chamber and add to the dysfunction in the nation’s capital. 

The vote — the first roll call of the new session — came on a package of bipartisan bills related to US support for Israel and Jordan and new sanctions against the Syrian regime. Needing 60 votes to break a filibuster, the motion was defeated 56-44.

Three Democrats from red states voted with Republicans: 

They were joined by a fourth Democrat, foreign relations ranking member Bob Menendez, in voting yes.

Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he is going to support the Mitch McConnell’s position when it comes to not bringing up any of the appropriations bills from the House this week.

It’s getting harder and harder for some Republicans to take the heat on the government shutdown and the House is expected to pass individual appropriations bills this week that the Senate already supported. But Shelby said he supports McConnell’s decision not to bring them up.

He said it would be “futile” to put bills on the floor that won’t get President Trump’s signature.

“I guess it’s optics versus substance,” Shelby said.

Asked if he would support Trump declaring a national emergency for funding for the wall, Shelby said, “I don’t know we will have to wait and see what he has to say about it.”

“Let’s be honest. The shutdown is not nice,” the Alabama lawmaker said. “It’s a partial shutdown, but it’s about a total of 800,000 workers and a lot of ‘em are going to be without paychecks soon and we need to do everything we can to do our job and do it on time.” 

Excessive absences by TSA officers currently working without pay have “adversly impacted security operations” at a southern California airport, a high-ranking Transportation Security Administration official wrote Monday in an internal email obtained by CNN.

The email from Martin Elam, the deputy federal security director overseeing overseeing five California airports, directed to all TSA personnel at Palm Springs International Airport, exposes for the first time an acknowledgement that the partial government shutdown – now stretching into a third week – is having some impact on aviation security in at least one airport.

Read the story.

President Trump will attend the Senate Republican lunch Wednesday before heading back to the White House to meet with a group of bipartisan congressional leaders, two sources said.

Vice President Mike Pence was already scheduled to go to the lunch, but now Trump will pay a visit as well.

This comes as GOP congressional leaders in the last 24 hours have urged the Trump administration to increase outreach to their rank-and-file members.

A congressional group of eight leaders will meet at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blasted Democrats this afternoon for engaging in partisanship politics rather than working on a deal to reopen the government.

McConnell, speaking from the Senate floor, said Democrats are only objecting to the border wall because President Trump is in office.

McConnell went on to criticize Democrats for “threatening to shut the Senate down” in protest of the government shutdown. 

President Trump is not expected to declare a national emergency in his speech this evening, three sources familiar with the matter told CNN. Instead, the President will focus on making his case to the public about why the situation on the southern border is a “crisis” and why a wall is necessary.

That doesn’t mean it won’t happen in the future. However, the President could change his mind as speechwriters make last minute changes. And Trump hasn’t closed the door to declaring a national emergency if negotiations continue to stall.

The sources said Trump is still focused on winning the public relations battle, believing he can turn up the heat on Democrats by convincing more of the country that a wall is necessary, the sources said.

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin announced today that he plans to donate his salary to food banks in his home state during the shutdown.

Where things stand: Food assistance programs could be impacted by the shutdown. Funding for food stamps, school lunches and nutrition for pregnant women and young children is expected to run out next month if the partial government shutdown isn’t resolved, experts say.

Republican Sen. John Cornyn said once again that President Trump shouldn’t issue a national emergency to get border wall funding.

“There is a hard way and there is an easy way to do things, and I think that would definitely be a hard way,” he said.

He expressed a similar sentiment yesterday: 

Cornyn added that it is “indisputable” that there is a humanitarian crisis at the border and he said there is also a national security issue.

Tonight, Cornyn said, Trump is going to go over Democrats’ heads and speak to the American people directly.

The National Governors Association has sent a bipartisan letter to President Trump and congressional leaders from both parties, calling for them to compromise and end the government shutdown.

Here’s a portion of the letter:

The National Park Service announced on its website that Joshua Tree National Park will close starting Thursday due to the government shutdown.

President Trump hasn’t made a final decision about whether to declare a national emergency to get his border wall, according to a person familiar with his thinking. 

He is still working closely with top aides, including Stephen Miller, ahead of tonight’s primetime Oval Office address. This person said Trump is still considering how far he should go in his message to the nation, and advisers have noted the legal battle the administration will surely face if he does declare a national emergency to fulfill his signature campaign promise. 

This debate is going on as White House aides are engaged in an all out blitz to get their message out, flooding the airwaves with officials ahead of Trump speaking tonight. 

As negotiations stall, senior aides in both parties are predicting the shutdown will last long past this weekend — making it the longest government shutdown in history.

Saturday will mark the 22nd day of the shutdown. The previous longest shutdown, which began in December 1995, went on for 21 days.

Here’s a look at how the US’s longest shutdowns stack up. (Note: The gray lines signify shutdowns where presidents had funding lapse while their own party held majorities in Congress.)

In his primetime address tonight, President Trump will make his case for wall funding. But he’s is facing an uphill climb: Polls show a majority of Americans blame him and Republicans for the shutdowns — and the majority have also consistently been opposed to his idea of a border wall with Mexico.

The average of polls taken since the shutdown began indicate that Americans are blaming Republicans for the shutdown. In the average…

When you combine all the numbers together, about 55% blame Republicans (either Trump or congressional Republicans) and about just 35% blame Democrats for the shutdown.

The good news for Trump and Republicans is that it is not clear their position on the shutdown is any worse than it was before it began. Polls before the shutdown started indicated that Americans would blame Republicans for a shutdown by about a 15 to 20 point margin, which is about where the polls are now.

A man looks through the U.S.-Mexico border wall in Tijuana, Mexico, on Sunday.

President Trump said Friday that he is considering using emergency powers, which would allow him to use military funding to build a wall on the US-Mexico border, saying “I can do it if I want.”

We’re not sure exactly how that would play out. It’s still unclear what route the administration would go if they choose to invoke emergency powers to attempt to start financing construction of portions of the wall. But there are some options…

All that said, remember: At this point Republicans on Capitol Hill have not been informed the President is going to utilize emergency powers.

The reality: Should the President decide to go beyond that and explicitly attempt to invoke emergency powers, Democrats have already made clear any effort to do either of the above to finance and build a portion of the border wall would invite a legal challenge, but it’s unclear what, exactly, the response would be until it becomes more clear which, if any, route the administration would choose.

Suffice it to say it would be an aggressive escalation in a fight that has been stuck at a complete stalemate for weeks.

Which brings up a key follow up: How would declaring a national emergency bring the government closer to re-opening? Would the White House and Republicans suddenly accept the bipartisan Senate crafted funding measures — which they’ve rejected up to this point? Aides are still very unclear what the end-game would be in the emergency declaration scenario, if it does happen at all. 

Regardless of how well the American economy is doing, the January jobs report might be ugly.

If the government shutdown lasts through next week, most of the 800,000 workers who have been furloughed will be counted as unemployed.

Here’s how jobs reports work: The US Bureau of Labor Statistics bases its report on a survey of workers taken during the pay period that contains the 12th of each month. That’s this Saturday, and many pay periods end on the 19th. 

If the furloughed workers end up being counted as unemployed, January could be the first month that jobs declined since September 2010. 

That decline could be comparatively large. The biggest seasonally adjusted, month-over-month loss during the Great Recession was in March 2009, when 802,000 jobs were wiped out. The largest monthly job loss on record — 1.97 million — was in September 1945 as America’s wartime economy came to a halt. 

The last prolonged government shutdown, in 2013, didn’t discernibly affect the headline jobs number because most workers received wages for some part of the pay period that included the 12th of the month. It did, however, contribute to a rise in the number of people counted as unemployed and an uptick in the unemployment rate.

Negotiations to fund the government are at a standstill. President Trump is continuing to make his case for wall funding, while the Democrats continue their push to chip away at Republican unity.

Make no mistake: This shutdown ends when one side crumbles. And that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s those at the top who blink. If the rank and file on either side start to go sideways, the intentions of the leaders can very well collapse quickly with them.

With that said, here are three things we’re watching today…

Today marks the 18th day of the partial government shutdown. There is no sign of either side buckling, which means for all intents in purposes, the battle has moved firmly — and almost entirely — to the war over messaging.

President Trump will occupy the ultimate bully pulpit tonight, in prime time, in the Oval Office. Democrats will respond, and continue their push to chip away at Republican unity in the meantime.

But beyond that, there’s simply nothing in the form of actual negotiations going on right now. 

Bottom line: All eyes are on the President Trump. Talks on Capitol Hill are frozen, and won’t budge, or even restart, until the President makes his next move. “We’re all just in wait and see mode at this point,” was how one House Republican lawmaker put it to me last night. 

Funding for food stamps, school lunches and nutrition for pregnant women and young children is expected to run out next month if the partial government shutdown isn’t resolved, experts say.

The largest benefit at risk is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, the formal name for food stamps. Nearly 38.6 million Americans depended on this aid to augment their grocery budgets in September, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s latest data.

The agency said last month that the program is funded through January, but it has only $3 billion in reserves to cover February. That’s less than two-thirds of food stamps’ $4.8 billion cost in September.

What the agency would do next is unknown.

Keep reading here.

The major television networks will provide wall-to-wall coverage of President Trump’s prime-time address on border security on Tuesday.

NBC, ABC, CBS and Fox broadcast network all said on Monday that they had agreed to the White House’s request for air time.

CNN, Fox News and MSNBC will all carry the address live, as well. The President’s Oval Office address will be seven to eight minutes, a White House officials said.

Presidents have been using Oval Office addresses to make big announcements for decades. But this is Trump’s first time using the setting for an address to the nation.

Earlier today, the White House requested air time for the speech, as is customary in the relationship between a president and the press. But for a few hours, it was unclear what the networks would do. 

CNN’s Jim Acosta contributed to this reporting.

A Transportation Security Administration worker screens passengers and airport employees at O'Hare International Airport on Jan. 07, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois.

Transportation Security Administration head David Pekoske held a call Monday with TSA security directors from airports across the country where they discussed impacts of the shutdown, including an increase in call outs and how to ensure officers show up to work, two sources familiar with the call told CNN. 

The call included Pekoske and top-ranking field officials, according to one of the sources, who listened to the call. Pekoske told the security leaders the agency will not lessen the standard of security and that airports should track sick-outs and report them back, the source on the call said.

Some airports are granting future time off as a way to incentivize attendance for those officers who come to work during the shutdown, one of the sources said.

A TSA spokesman said the agency holds calls with stakeholders on a regular basis and declined to provide a readout of this call.

The call with the administrator is a sign the increase in sick-outs, which CNN first reported and which TSA has acknowledged, has the attention of the highest levels of the agency.

If President Trump invokes a “national emergency” at the US border and uses emergency powers to bypass Congress and obtain funding to build his long-promised border wall, a battle in the courts over the questionable legality of spending those dollars would be virtually guaranteed.

Trump has already issued three national emergency declarations during his tenure. They are…

The US is currently under 31 concurrent states of emergency about a spectrum of international issues around the globe, according to a CNN review of documents from the Congressional Research Service and the Federal Register.

Vice President Mike Pence and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen

Vice President Mike Pence and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen will be on the Hill Tuesday evening to address the Republican caucus regarding the partial government shutdown, multiple congressional aides tell CNN.

They will address the caucus at 5:30 p.m. ET.

Not yet a bipartisan trip: They will meet with Republicans, but it’s still to be determined if they will meet with any Democrats.

Former President Jimmy Carter said he does not support President Trump’s border wall and hasn’t talked to him about it.

Why this matters: Carter was forced to issue a statement on Twitter after Trump claimed last week the some presidents have told him “that we should have done” the border wall.

“This should have been done by all of the presidents that preceded me. And they all know it. Some of them have told me that we should have done it,” Trump said.

Former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton also denied telling Trump they wished they had built the wall.

The only living former president yet to go on record denying that he praised Trump for trying to build the wall is Trump’s immediate predecessor, Barack Obama.

The federal court system is going to attempt to stay open and function normally through Jan. 18, according to an update from the court system’s administrators Monday.

Some expenses, such as for new hires, are being cut back, but judicial branch employees will still be paid during the federal shutdown through that date.

So what happens after Jan. 18? Individual judges will be able to continue to work with cut-back staff, because the federal judiciary operates as an essential part of the government.

While some civil litigation is paused because of the shutdown, criminal matters “are expected to proceed uninterrupted,” the court system said in a statement on its website Monday.

The court system previously predicted it would have enough fund during the federal shutdown to operate through Jan. 11.

President Trump’s decision to deliver a primetime address and visit the southern border came after some of his allies have told him his arguments about immigration aren’t resonating, according to two people familiar with the matter.

In conversations over the past two weeks, some of the President’s advisers have told him that simply tweeting and speaking off-the-cuff wouldn’t alone suffice in convincing Americans a border wall is necessary.

A missed opportunity: Inside the White House, some view the quiet week between Christmas and New Years as a lost opportunity that could have been used to drive home an urgent message about the necessity of a border wall while Congress was out of town.

Some of Trump’s aides view the “build the wall” argument as no longer having the same impact it once did during the campaign, because Trump has used it so frequently. The slogan lacks the urgency needed to break the shutdown impasse, some of Trump’s advisers have told him.

That’s prompted an effort inside the White House to develop plans for higher-profile messaging events that would allow Trump to underscore what he says is a border crisis. 

Trump sought to begin executing a new strategy when he appeared in the briefing room with border patrol officials last Thursday, believing the setting would lend some authority to his message. But afterward some aides viewed the event as a dud that didn’t have the break-through effect that was desired.

A trip to the border has long been planned, and was tentatively slated at one point to occur last week. That was moved to this week.

Discussions about a primetime address have also been floating around the West Wing for a week or so, according to the people familiar with the matter. The idea has been championed by acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, and was a topic of discussion at Sunday’s senior staff retreat at Camp David.

Russell Vought, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, said tax refunds “will go out,” despite the government shutdown.

Vought, speaking with reporters alongside Vice President Mike Pence today, added that the orders are to “make this shutdown as painless as possible.”

Where things stand now: The Internal Revenue Service is among the federal agencies affected by the government shutdown, and is operating with only 12.5% of its workforce, or fewer than 10,000 federal employees. The IRS is currently working under non-filing season shutdown plans, but it’s not clear how those might be updated one filing season hits.

Tax filing season usually begins in mid-January (the IRS has yet to announce when individuals and businesses can begin submitting their income tax returns this year).

Over the weekend, Pence led two days of staff-level meetings to discuss the shutdown, but it didn’t bring either side closer to a deal, according to multiple people involved from both parties.

Vice President Mike Pence, speaking to reporters today, said the ongoing shutdown negotiations have been productive, but that does not mean progress has been made.

Pence said the administration has established that there is a humanitarian and national security crisis on the US-Mexico border, citing a precipitous rise of families and unaccompanied children attempting to enter the United States.

This is similar to language Trump used earlier today: This afternoon, the President tweeted that he will address the nation at 9 p.m. ET Tuesday on “the Humanitarian and National Security crisis on our Southern Border.”

Vice President Mike Pence told reporters this afternoon that White House counsel is looking at the President’s ability to declare a national emergency to fund border security, as he suggested on Friday and again over the weekend.

Trump is still considering it, Pence said.

“I will say that one of the ways Congress can find resources is through an emergency supplemental,” he added.

Asked whether declaration of an emergency should be used as a bargaining chip, Pence said, “There’s no threat going on here.”

Senate Democrats will try to block action on a Syria sanctions bill when it comes up for a vote Tuesday — an effort to keep the focus on the government shutdown.  

A separate senior Democratic aide said Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer “has notified the Dem caucus that he will vote against proceeding to S.1 because Senate Republicans should instead bring to the floor the House-passed bills to reopen the government.”

The measure in question here combines four Middle East-related bills, including new sanctions on the Syrian regime, and is viewed by critics of Trump’s decision to withdraw US troops there as a vehicle to speak out against that move. 

Democrats also will discuss at their weekly policy lunch Wednesday whether to broaden their blocking tactic to all legislation, according to a senior Democratic aide.   

Sen. John Cornyn, a member of Senate Republican leadership, told CNN President Trump could complicate the stalemate over the shutdown if he were to declare a national emergency to secure funding for his border wall.

Asked whether he believes Mexico will pay for the wall through the new trade agreement, as Trump has asserted, Cornyn said there’s a “long way to go” before the trade agreement is even approved by Congress.

Cornyn said he would be “fine” with reopening individual government agencies not affected by the wall, like the IRS, but “if this is all about a plan to try to deny the President the money that we need for border security, I’m not going to be part of that nor will the President sign it.”

He called this shutdown a “contrived” one that could be resolved by negotiations of “good faith.”

Tuesday’s address will be President Trump’s first formal address to the nation delivered from the Oval Office. (He’ll be talking about border security.)

Trump has spoken during primetime on a few occasions before in speeches that could be called an “address to the nation,” though that’s a loose term that different White Houses use in different ways.

Here are some times Trump has spoken in primetime in formal remarks (this does not include campaign rallies or sprays):

One thing to note: Former President Barack Obama gave 13 official addresses to the nation during his eight years in office.

Transportation Security Administration officers screen passengers at the departure area of the Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California, on Jan. 5, 2019.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, the chair of the House Homeland Security committee, asked today about sick-outs at the Transportation Security Administration, first reported by CNN.

The letter goes on to ask for information on the callouts, staffing levels and plans for dealing with the shutdown.

CNN reported Friday that hundreds of TSA screeners, working without pay, were calling out sick at major airports.

Government workers from across the country are figuring out ways to get by and pay the bills during the government shutdown. One contract employee said she set up a GoFundMe account to help pay her expenses during the shutdown, which currently has no end in sight.

Burr, a federal contract worker for the Department of Transportation in Kansas City, Missouri, said she also isn’t expecting to get paid for hours she has already worked because she can’t submit her timesheet since there is no one to approve it in the office where she works.

“I just want to get back to work. I just want the government to be back up and running and I want to get back to work and earn my paycheck and that’s what I think a lot of people feel like,” she said.

Watch more:

The broadcast networks have not yet committed to showing President Trump’s Tuesday night address.

“Time has been requested tomorrow night for 9p. Networks are deliberating,” a network source said.

The networks usually grant presidential requests for airtime, but don’t always or automatically say yes. For example: The broadcasters declined to air an address by former President Barack Obama in 2014 about executive actions on immigration.

Why this matters: Trump announced on Twitter earlier Monday that he would be addressing the nation on “the Humanitarian and National Security crisis on our Southern Border.”

White House communications director Bill Shine said the President will address the nation from the Oval Office. 

CNN’s Jim Acosta contributed to this reporting.

The Internal Revenue Service is among the federal agencies affected by the government shutdown, and the possibility of a lengthy stalemate could complicate this year’s tax season.

The IRS is currently working under non-filing season shutdown plans, but it’s not clear how those might be updated one filing season hits. Right now, the agency is operating with only 12.5% of its workforce, or fewer than 10,000 federal employees.

During a shutdown, the IRS typically doesn’t perform audits, pay refunds or offer assistance to taxpayers if they have questions — especially outside of the filing season.

And filing season is coming: Tax filing season usually begins in mid-January (the IRS has yet to announce when individuals and businesses can begin submitting their income tax returns this year).

For now, individuals who call the IRS with questions are greeted with an automated message: “Welcome to the IRS. Live telephone assistance is not available at this time. Normal operations will resume as soon as possible.”

President Trump just tweeted that he will address the nation at 9 p.m. ET Tuesday on “the Humanitarian and National Security crisis on our Southern Border.”

Remember: Trump is set to visit the border on Thursday, which will be day 20 of the government shutdown.

The President hasn’t backed down from his demand for funding for a border wall as lawmakers remain in a stalemate over shutdown talks. On Sunday, Trump said he might declare a national emergency imminently to secure money for his border wall.

Democrats and Republicans both are keeping a close eye on how rank-and-file GOP lawmakers react to the ongoing shutdown today.

A key piece to keep an eye on this week: Democrats seized on the handful of House Republicans who voted with Democrats on their proposal last week, as well as the two senators — Cory Gardner of Colorado and Susan Collins of Maine — as evidence their strategy was forcing cracks in the Republican ranks. That hasn’t been born out throughout the rest of the House and Senate conferences up to this point — and people familiar with both say they remain steadfast behind the President.

Democratic leaders were of the belief that the weekend shutdown meetings were instead put together in an effort to head off any wavering Republicans, several sources tell me. In their view, the meetings were cover — the appearance of substantive talks when none existed, so rank and file Republicans could tell their constituents things were actually happening.

Talks will continue: The House and Senate are out of session until Tuesday. People involved expect another meeting between leaders and the President to be scheduled soon, but it hasn’t been put on the books yet. Staff talks are expected to continue.

President Trump asked aides over the weekend about delivering a primetime address on Tuesday, a White House official said.

Bill Shine, the deputy chief of staff for communications, is meeting with aides this afternoon to discuss a potential address to the nation.

The official said it’s in the planning stages now — but Trump wants to make his case about the government shutdown and wall funding, in advance of a trip to the border on Thursday.

Monday night wasn’t an option because of the College Football championship. It’s unclear, of course, whether the networks will take it or have been formally asked.

Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers work unpaid as the partial US government shutdown continues.

The Transportation Security Administration said almost all passengers who flew yesterday waited less than a half hour in security lines.

The statement came following a slew of tweets last night showing lines at airports and in the wake of CNN’s reporting on sick-outs at airports.

Here’s the statement from Michael Bilello, the TSA’s assistant administrator for public affairs:

Last week, the TSA acknowledged there was an increase in call outs over the holidays, but said it caused minimal impacts.

Thursday will mark the 20th day of the partial government shutdown, and President Trump will spend it at the Southern border, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders just announced.

Sanders said Trump will meet “those on the frontlines of the national security and humanitarian crisis.”

Why this visit matters: Parts of the government shut down last month after lawmakers and President Trump were unable to reach a deal that includes $5 billion for his long-promised border wall.

And Trump hasn’t backed down from the demand. Yesterday, Trump said he might declare a national emergency imminently to secure money for his border wall.

An "Area Closed" sign is posted in front of a closed section of road at Joshua Tree National Park on January 4.

Historically, it’s not a compromise, but the pain inflicted by the shut down — either politically or throughout the country, or both — that bring an end to a shutdown stand off.

That pain is coming: This Friday is the first time the vast majority of workers will miss a paycheck, and their personal stories are viscerally painful, and will fill the airwaves.

By the end of the week this would become the longest shut down in history, a symbolic but no less headline grabbing moment. 

A few other effects that could still come:

In other words, this is about to get very real, and very painful. And that pain will be used as a cudgel by parties seeking to amp up the pressure on the other side in the days ahead. That, more than anything else, tends to shock lawmakers to the table with a willingness to negotiate. 

We’re now on day 17 of the government shutdown. The two days of staff-level meetings, led by Vice President Mike Pence, didn’t bring either side closer to a deal, according to multiple people involved from both parties.

It was more of laying out of positions than talks for a potential breakthrough or pathway out of a partial government shut down that has entered its third week.

The bottom line: This isn’t ending any time soon. 

So what now? Something — and one side — has to give, and at this point neither side has given any indication that buckling is on their agenda.

The weekend talks didn’t get them closer to that point, at least not in a manner that will result in a clear next step in the process. Until things loosen up – and to be perfectly clear, people involved make clear they simply haven’t yet in any tangible way – things will remain in their current place for the coming days, and, quite possibly, weeks. 

White House social media director Dan Scavino just shared a photo of President Trump’s meeting with congressional leaders on Friday in the Situation Room.

The photo, shot by Shealah Craighead, shows Trump, with his arms crossed, standing at the head of the table as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appeared to be speaking. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Sen. Dick Durbin and acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker were also seated at the table.

Here’s a look at the meeting:

About that meeting: Neither side emerged detailing an immediate breakthrough that could end the continued stalemate that has allowed a partial government shutdown to wear on for two weeks. And despite his rosier outlook, Trump conceded the impasse could reach an historic length.

Pelosi described the session as “a lengthy and sometimes contentious conversation” but indicated there was some progress made.

Senators are due back in the Capitol this week after the chamber adjourned Friday morning, meaning the shutdown will likely extend into a third week. Roughly 800,000 federal workers are going without pay and several federal systems are closed, including the Smithsonian museums and some national parks.

The White House confirmed tomorrow’s meeting on the shutdown will be at 11 a.m. ET.

White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said staffers from the House and Senate leadership will attend the follow-up meeting in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

Staffers, he said, will “work towards and an agreement that secures the border and opens the government.”

Vice President Mike Pence has extended invitations to leadership staff to meet at 11 a.m. ET at the White House on Saturday.

Pence floated the idea of staff negotiations through the weekend during a discussion earlier Friday, a Democratic official familiar with the meeting said. In response, both House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer urged President Trump to commit to reopening government by Tuesday.  

Trump refused. 

Rep. Mark Meadows, chairman of the rightwing House Freedom Caucus, said conservative members of Congress want President Trump to “hold firm” on his demand for border wall funding despite the shutdown.

But here’s the thing: A recent CNN poll conducted by SSRS found that the public largely oppose the border wall, with 57% against a wall compared with 38% in favor. Those numbers are similar to where they were just after Trump took office in 2017. Most who favor the wall say they would continue to do so even if all the funding for the wall came from the US rather than from Mexico.

Meadows suggested a compromise that would include border security measures similar to Israel’s — “a combination of fence and walls.”

“It’s very effective for Israel,” he said. “There is no one who can deny the effectiveness of that. Let’s just do that and propose that and get some funding for that type of measure.”

Watch below:

Hundreds of Transportation Security Administration officers, who are required to work without paychecks through the partial government shutdown, have called out from work this week from at least four major airports, according to two senior agency officials and three TSA employee union officials.

The mass call outs could inevitably mean air travel is less secure, especially as the shutdown enters its second week with no clear end to the political stalemate in sight.

At New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, as many as 170 TSA employees have called out each day this week, Thomas tells CNN. Officers from a morning shift were required to work extra hours to cover the gaps. 

Call outs have increased by 200%-300% at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, where typically 25 to 30 TSA employees call out from an average shift according to a local TSA official familiar with the situation.

Union officials stress that the absences are not part of an organized action, but believe the number of people calling out will likely increase.

“This problem of call outs is really going to explode over the next week or two when employees miss their first paycheck,” a union official at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport told CNN. “TSA officers are telling the union they will find another way to make money. That means calling out to work other jobs.”

Keep reading.

President Trump mentioned extending the standoff “to the election” and refused to back off his demand for $5.6 billion in funding for a border wall during his meeting with congressional leaders in the White House Situation Room, two people familiar with the meeting said.

He opened the talks by launching into a 15-minute salvo that also included griping at the House speaker for recent comments from Democratic lawmakers raising the specter of impeachment.

The Democratic leaders again pitched the House-passed plan to the President to re-open the government and continue negotiations. While Trump demurred, and at one point said it would make him look “foolish” to accept the plan in the meeting earlier this week, today Trump flat out rejected the idea to the Democratic leaders, telling them bluntly: “No.” 

Democrats made clear early in the meeting that their threshold for talks on a border security deal was Trump agreeing to re-open the government. Trump, as he made clear during his opening statement to the leaders, said the government would remain shuttered until a deal was reached.

Janitor Lila Johnson, 71, said she won’t receive any back pay for the hours missed during the government shutdown because she works at the Department of Agriculture on a contract basis.

Johnson receives a pension from a previous janitor job she retired from but she said that even with her pension and social security, she isn’t able to make ends meet. That’s why she took the contract janitor job.

“I’m going deep in a hole by extending these bills,” she says adding, “I’m losing in the 401(k) Plan so everything is just piling up, you know.”

“When I go back to work, I still will have to work at least two months before I see a decent check,” Johnson added.

Watch below:

CNN’s Manu Raju sums up what we just heard:

President Trump speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House on Jan. 4, 2019 in Washington, DC.

President Donald Trump was asked if he thought landlords and bill collectors should be lenient on federal employees whose paychecks are affected by the shutdown.

“I think they will. I’ve been a landlord for a long time… they work with people,” Trump said.

By the numbers: There are approximately 380,000 federal employees on furlough and another 420,000 working without pay. Trump has claimed they support the shutdown, but many have begun spoken out, saying they are worried about buying food or paying rent.

Watch below:

Asked what financial and social safety net is available for federal workers out of a job during the government shutdown, President Trump told reporters that “the safety net will be a strong border.”

He continued: “I think a lot of the people you’re referring to … are really wanting that to happen, too. I really believe a lot of them want to see border security and they’re willing to give it up.”

Watch below:

President Trump was asked about the $10,000 raise that his Cabinet members, Vice President Mike Pence, and other senior administration officials are due to receive.

Asked if he would ask them to not accept the raise due to the shutdown, Trump expressed some openness. 

Pence nodded following the news conference when he was asked if he would turn down a $10,000 pay raise he’s slated to potentially be issued during the partial government shutdown.

CNN reported earlier Friday that Pence and senior political aides may see their paychecks go up soon if Congress does not pass legislation that would extend a pay freeze for those officials, according to documents from the Office of Personnel Management.

Watch below:

A reporter just asked President Trump if he has considered using emergency powers to build his wall without Congressional approval and necessary funds.

“Yes, I have. And I can do it if I want,” Trump claimed.

The reporter asked if that means he doesn’t need Congressional approval to build the wall, then.

“Absolutely,” Trump said. “We can call a national emergency. I haven’t done it. I may do it. I may do it. We can call a national emergency and build it very quickly. It’s another way of doing it.”

Asked if that was a threat to Democrats, Trump replied, “I never threaten anybody, but I am allowed to do it – call a national emergency.”

Watch below:

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins pressed President Trump on how he can say he’s not failing on delivering his campaign promise to build a concrete wall and have Mexico pay for it. 

He noted that “steel is stronger than concrete.”

“I know you’re not into the construction business, you don’t understand something. We now have a great steel business,” he told Collins.

Trump then touting the steel industry’s growth under his administration. 

“If I build a wall and the wall is made out of steel instead of concrete I think people will like that… I’ll have it done by companies in our country that are now powerful great companies again,” he said.

Trump did not explain any justification for shutting down the government over border wall funding.

Watch below:

Asked if he was proud about owing the shutdown, as he said he would be in early December, President Trump said he’s “very proud of doing what I’m doing.”

Watch below:

President Trump, speaking to reporters, said he wouldn’t reopen the government until the dispute over border security is solved.

Asked why he won’t reopen the government to create more space to have a broader conversation on border security, Trump said, “We’re not going to do that. We won’t be doing pieces. We won’t be doing it in drips and drabs.”

Watch it here:

President Trump, now taking reporters’ questions, confirmed that he told top Democrats he was prepared to let the partial government shutdown – in which up to 800,000 federal workers have been furloughed and are going without pay – for months or years.

He continued: “I don’t think it will but I think I can speak for Republicans in the Senate and Republicans in the House – they feel very strongly about having a safe country, about having a border that makes sense…I hope it doesn’t go on even beyond a few more days. It really could open very quickly.”

Watch below:

Though Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that President Trump suggested the shutdown could go on for months or years, Trump seemed to express some optimism at the weekend working group’s potential to end the standoff. 

“I’m going to ask Mike Pence put together a team of people who will work over the weekend… on the border, different things having to do with border security, including at the ports of entry,” he said. 

He added: “What we want to do has to be done properly.”

Watch below:

President Trump continued his pitch for a border wall, citing coyotes and human trafficking as examples of dangers at the US-Mexico border. 

“The only way you’re going to stop that is by having a solid steel structure or concrete structure, whether it’s a wall or some form of very powerful steel,” Trump said, speaking from the White House Rose Garden. 

He noted that steel is “more expensive,” but “I think we’re probably talking about steel.”

Trump also added that “previous presidents” told him “that we should have done it,” though he didn’t name which ones.

Watch below:

Speaking to reporters as he returned from the border security meeting at the White House, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said they had a “spirited discussion as you can imagine.”

McConnell said staffers will meeting this weekend to discuss the shutdown.

He continued: “The government couldn’t reopen until Tuesday anyhow because we don’t have people here to vote” he added, since both chambers of Congress gaveled out of session this afternoon and will return on Tuesday. 

“But that’s at least encouraging in the sense that if the other Democratic leaders’ staffs agree to meet, we’ll at least have a working group of people who know the most about this subject to see if they can reach an agreement and then punt it back to us for final sign off,” McConnell said.

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who spoke at the White House driveway with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, did not answer questions about whether his staff would participate in these talks over the weekend.

President Donald Trump kicked off his remarks in the Rose Garden by noting that he had a “productive meeting” with Senate leadership and “came a long way.”

“I thought it was really a very good meeting. Were all on the same path in terms of wanting the government open,” Trump said.

The President added that a designated group will meet over the weekend “to determine what we’re going to do about the border.”

He did not say who was a part of the designated group.

That’s a slightly rosier assessment than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s summary, who described it as “sometimes contentious” but admitted progress was made – though she described it as better understanding each other and eliminating some possibilities.

Watch below:

President Trump is speaking in the White House Rose Garden after meeting with Congressional Democrats amid talks to reopen the government and fund border security.

We’ll bring you highlights here as they come.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders just announced that President Trump will speak to the press about the just-concluded meeting with Congressional leaders. We don’t know if he’ll take questions.

Timing: Any moment.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he pleaded with President Trump not to “hold millions of Americans hundreds of thousands of workers hostage” during their White House meeting.

But Schumer said Trump wasn’t willing to work with Democrats – and would continue to keep the government closed.

Lawmakers had contentious discussion on several key issues, Schumer said.

“The discussion then, we discussed a bunch of issues as the leader said that were contentious and we will continue discussing of course, but it’s very hard to see how progress will be made unless they open up the government,” Schumer said.

Watch below:

Newly elected House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the press they just completed a “lengthy and sometimes contentious conversation” with President Trump.

She said that while Democrats are “committed to keeping our border safe,” they believed the priority should be reopening the government first.

“We really cannot resolve this until we open up government,” Pelosi said. “We made that very clear to the President.”

Watch below:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck are speaking to the press assembled in the White House driveway after meeting with President Donald Trump.

The midday meeting between Trump and the newly powerful Democrats came as a partial government shutdown wears on, even as both sides become further entrenched and an end to the stalemate becomes ever more elusive.

We’ll bring you highlights in a moment.

Vice President Mike Pence and senior political aides may see their paychecks go up soon if Congress does not pass legislation that would extend a pay freeze for those officials, according to documents from the Office of Personnel Management.

“Unless extended by new legislation, the pay freeze will end on the last day of the last pay period that begins in calendar year 2018,” Margaret Weichert, the agency’s acting director, wrote in a memo last week.

The memo notes the pay freeze would therefore end effectively on Saturday if no legislative action occurs.

The White House did not immediately return CNN’s request for comment.

President Trump has a planned appearance in the Rose Garden this afternoon, two White House aides say, following his meeting with Congressional leaders.

The White House plan now calls for Trump to address the media after Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer take questions from reporters at the stakeout location.

A White House official says the president wants a chance to re-do his appearance in the briefing room and take questions to amplify his position on the shutdown.

Unclear, of course, whether he will take questions. But the expectation is that he will, the official said.

Deputy chief of staff Bill Shine instructed aides to prepare the Rose Garden for a presidential announcement a short time ago.

The White House just announced that President Trump sent a letter to Congress this morning, saying the wall is “absolutely critical to border security.”

Trump included a PDF presentation that the White House says Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen attempted to give during the meeting with Congressional leadership in the White House Situation Room earlier this week, but was rejected.

“Some of those present did not want to hear the presentation at the time, and so the President decided to make it available to all Members of Congress,” the White House says.

In his letter, Trump writes that “our first task should be to reopen the Government and to deliver on our highest duty as elected officials: the security of the Nation and its borders.”

After outlining a series of White House-supplied numbers making the administration’s case, Trump writes, “Absolutely critical to border security and national security is a wall or a physical barrier that prevents entry in the first place.”

He also calls for the termination of the Flores Settlement Agreement, a decades-old settlement agreement that limits the length of time and conditions under which US officials can detain immigrant children. The White House believes it is “preventing families from being held together through removal.”

“Americans have endured decades of broken promises on illegal immigration,” Trump tells Congress. 

Republican Sens. Cory Gardner of Colorado and Susan Collins of Maine say the shutdown should end before a deal is reached on a wall.

Democrats, who passed two bills in the House last night, believe they not only hold the political high ground in the fight, but also now put the policy hot potato back into the laps of the GOP, aides say.

President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence meet with Republican and Democratic congressional leadership on Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2019, in the Situation Room of the White House.

The White House message during the shutdown has been that there is a “national security emergency” at the border – Sarah Sanders used these exact words this morning – and the Situation Room lends an air of seriousness to the debate for the White House.

The Situation Room is also typically a no-press zone because it is a setting for classified intelligence, which means there is no opportunity for cameras or questions (although rare exceptions have been made in the past).

Having no press in the room means private discussions can be had, and it effectively blocks another photo-op moment between Trump and Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer from happening.

The invitations also didn’t use the word “briefing” this time, – it’s just a meeting between principals. As a result, many on the Hill are expecting it will be just talks, but Democrats are also expecting the White House to put on some sort of show – similar to the Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen briefing on Wednesday – which was not classified and could have been held anywhere in the White House.

The bottom line: Trump likes the gravitas and air of seriousness the Situation Room brings even though it is technically just another conference room when national security and classified information is not being discussed. The Oval Office, which is traditionally used for meetings with Congressional leadership, would serve the same purpose in theory.

The Senate has left the building until Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET, meaning that the shutdown likely won’t end before then.

Democrats believe they have effectively jammed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell with the plan the House passed Thursday night – a bill to reopen the government with no additional wall funding – and that rank-and-file senators will start to feel the pressure and send word that it’s time to buck the President and put the Democratic proposals on the floor.

Given that, Democrats don’t plan on moving off their position (the two bills passed Thursday) at least until Republican senators return to Washington next week to face the press (and pressure). 

Trump addresses the press in the White House briefing room on Jan. 3, 2019.

The House last night passed two bills to reopen the government. However, it was largely a symbolic gesture.

The Democratic-led measures aimed at reopening shuttered parts of the federal government without allocating new money for Trump’s promised border wall.

Trump and congressional leaders will meet in the Situation Room at the White House to, once again, attempt to find a way to end a government shutdown, now in its second week

The House passed the second of two Democratic-led measures aimed at reopening shuttered parts of the federal government without allocating new money for President Donald Trump’s promised border wall.

The measure consists of six spending bills to reopen and fully fund parts of government until the end of the fiscal year, September 30. The House passed the appropriations package 241 - 190.

The vote comes after the House passed the first measure – a stopgap bill to reopen the Department of Homeland Security at its current funding levels until February 8, essentially punting the fight on the wall to next month while reopening DHS in the meantime.

Both bills are expected to go nowhere in the Senate. Even if they did, Trump, who wants $5 billion in new border wall money, announced he would veto both bills.

Hear more:

The House of Representatives passed a stopgap bill on Thursday night to reopen the Department of Homeland Security at its current funding levels until February 8, essentially punting the fight on the wall to next month while reopening DHS in the meantime. The stopgap bill would not allocate any new wall funding, rejecting President Donald Trump’s demand for additional funding for a border wall.

The House passed the DHS stopgap bill 239-192. Five Republicans joined with Democrats to pass it. 

Hear more:

Underscoring how far apart President Trump and Congressional Democrats remain over the shutdown, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi emphatically reiterated tonight, “We’re not doing a wall. Does anyone have any doubt? We are not doing a wall.”

In a news conference ahead of two votes tonight on reopening the government, Pelosi and other Democratic leaders continued to criticize the President for “holding hostage” federal employees to get his border wall money. 

Pelosi knocked Trump as a “master of diversion,” accusing him of making noise about the border wall to distract from other problems in his administration. 

Asked by CNN if she’s concerned about backlash, Pelosi fired back: “It has nothing to do with politics.”

She knocked the wall as “an immorality,” “a waste of money,” and a “diversionary tactic on the part of the President.”

Asked by CNN whether she would accept $1 in new border wall funding, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi quipped that she could support $1, after refusing to budge on the border wall in ongoing negotiations. 

“A dollar? Yeah, $1,” she said, as other Democratic leaders chuckled around her. 

Pressed by CNN why she wouldn’t be willing to accept more than that, Pelosi hit back: “You said $1.” 

The White House issued a statement that threatened to veto the House’s spending bills.

The House is planning to pass a legislative package tonight to reopen the government (It has been partially shutdown for 13 days now).

Here’s a portion of the White House’s statement:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and fellow Democrats again outlined a plan Thursday to pass a legislative package later in the day to reopen shuttered parts of the government.

During the news conference, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer accidentally said the wrong time for President Trump’s meeting with Congressional leaders at the White House on Friday.

Pelosi corrected him, and joked, “Well he told me 11:30. Maybe the real meeting is at 10 with the men or something.”

Watch below:

The Senate just adjourned for the day, without an agreement to reopen the government.

It will come back in at 10 a.m. ET Friday but no votes are planned so most senators are departing. 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday he has not been “sidelined” in talks to reopen parts of the government but that he has “no particular role” to play in ending the standoff, a responsibility he said falls to President Trump and congressional Democrats who wield expanded power in the new Congress. 

In a brief hallway interview, McConnell explained that his role is now reversed from when he and then-Vice President Joe Biden worked to avoid a fiscal cliff and negotiated other tough issues during the Obama administration. 

“So, I haven’t been sidelined. It’s just that there’s no particular role for me when you have this setup,” McConnell added.

Vice President Mike Pence broke from his normal silence in front of cameras today while on Capitol Hill, and veered toward reporters to make a statement about border security.

While he didn’t take questions, Pence had a fair amount to say about border security, working with Democrats and the need for a wall.

This is his full statement:

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn said Thursday he “could see a scenario” where President Trump might support the Dreamers — undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children — in exchange for a border wall deal.

But he warned that “the details are important.”

Cornyn added that it’s “worth talking about” comprehensive immigration reform.

Asked about Sen. Lindsey Graham raising the possibility of Dreamers for a border wall deal, the Texas Republican said, “We’ve seen that movie before and it didn’t work before. I’m certainly open to any combination of issues to try to break the impasse.”

He added: “The White House is not irrelevant in whatever we do.”

Cornyn seemed visibly frustrated by the stalled talks to reopen the partial government shutdown as he spoke with reporters off the floor Thursday afternoon.

“I think there’s a solution here and it’s really not all that complicated but if people don’t want to get to yes for other reasons than it‘s impossible to bridge that divide.”

Cornyn commented that once Nancy Pelosi’s new role as speaker is finalized, she’ll be “in a better mood to negotiate.”

Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer leave the White House following a meeting with Trump on Wednesday.

The White House has formally invited congressional leaders back to the White House on Friday for more funding talks, spokesman Hogan Gidley said.

The White House meeting will come one day after the 116th Congress convened for the first time.

The Democrats now control the House of Representatives, and Nancy Pelosi, just moments ago, was elected speaker of the House. Republicans still control the Senate.

Congressional leaders met at the White House on Wednesday, too. Democrats emerged from that meeting with President Trump indicating there was no breakthrough that might lead to a reopening of the government.

The partial government shutdown is nearly two weeks old, with no end in sight.

It’s currently the fourth-longest in US history. That begs the question: What was the longest shutdown?

That would be the 21-day clash between President Bill Clinton and the GOP Congress that stretched from December 1995 to January 1996.

The second-longest happened in 1978, between Oct. 1 and 17. Democratic President Jimmy Carter was in the White House, and both chambers of Congress were also Democratic-led.

And the third-longest was in 2013 and ran for 16 days under President Barack Obama. Democrats controlled the Senate, but the GOP had the House.

Read more about the US’s history of shutdowns here.

The inauguration of the 116th Congress today marks the first time ever that a federal government shutdown will extend into two different Congresses.

It’s also the first time that a chamber of Congress changed power in the middle of a government shutdown.

Remember: Jan. 3 is the Day 13 of the shutdown, making it the fourth-longest in US history.

One furloughed federal worker, at home in Colorado anxiously watching CNN as the government shutdown clock continues to rise, tells our affiliate KMGH that she’s worried about how she’ll pay her bills – she recently had surgery and her leg is in a cast.

“I get up really early to watch” the news, Andrea Popelka said, hoping to hear lawmakers have reached a deal before the money runs out.

Another worker, furloughed HUD employee Rebecca Maclean, just told CNN, “It’s not fair to put 800,000 employees lives and livelihoods in the balance.”

“I’m worried every day about how much food I have in my house and whether or not I can make next month’s bills,” she said.

Watch:

President Trump is now blaming the shutdown on the 2020 election. “The Democrats know they can’t win based on all of the achievements of ‘Trump,’ so they are going all out on the desperately needed Wall and Border Security - and Presidential Harassment,” he tweeted. “For them, strictly politics!”

Don’t forget: In early December Trump preemptively accepted ownership of a then-merely possible shutdown, telling the Democrats he would be “proud” to shut down the government over border security. “I’ll tell you what, I am proud to shut down the government for border security, Chuck,” Trump told Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. “So, I will take the mantle. I will be the one to shut it down. I’m not going to blame you for it.”

Democrats will grab significant leverage against President Donald Trump when they claim the House of Representatives on Thursday in a historic reshuffling of Washington’s balance of power.

But as they gear up to make life miserable for the White House, the first consequence of the new era of divided government will be to make a solution to the partial shutdown of federal agencies, now well into its second week, more elusive.

Here’s the thing: The showdown between Trump and newly empowered Democrats will only end when both sides have an incentive to move.

Right now, all the political forces that could bring the two sides together are flowing in opposite directions, as the political significance of the moment suddenly raises the stakes in their showdown over funding for Trump’s border wall.

Trump is refusing to water down his demand for $5 billion in funding for his border wall in return for agreeing on a federal funding package and appears to think he’s winning the showdown.

A huge shift in power: Presumptive House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has zero desire to acquiesce to the President during her first hours with a gavel in hand, only solidifying the position of the Democrats against additional funding. Her diverse caucus may yet disagree on much, but they appear in lockstep over opposing Trump on the wall.

Senate Republicans, who already voted once in the last Congress to keep government open, are on the sidelines having made clear they won’t act on anything until a deal is reached that Trump will actually sign.

And holiday season distractions meant that the misery of federal workers deprived of paychecks did not reach a critical mass that would force lawmakers to demand a swift resolution.

Barring a miracle, the partial shutdown is not ending any time soon. Senate Republican Majority leader Mitch McConnell said Wednesday it could take “weeks” for government to reopen. And Trump told reporters a resolution could take “a long time.”

Keep reading.

A White House official said they asked Democrats during a meeting Wednesday with President Trump if they would agree to go higher than their current line of $1.3 billion for border security funding if he agreed to sign a short-term extension.

But Democrats would not signal that they would.

During the meeting, Democrats had asked Trump why he wouldn’t sign six bipartisan Senate bills and let them continue to negotiate Department of Homeland Security funding during a short-term extension.