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The government stumbled into a midnight shutdown Thursday as a rogue Senate Republican blocked a speedy vote on a massive, bipartisan, budget-busting spending deal, protesting the return of trillion-dollar deficits on the watch of Republicans controlling Washington. A shutdown - technically a lapse in agency appropriations - became inevitable as GOP Sen. Rand Paul repeatedly held up votes on the budget plan, which is married to a six-week government-wide spending measure.
For the second time in less than a month, the federal government officially ran out of money to operate, as the latest shutdown began at the stroke of midnight here in Washington, D.C., though Congressional leaders were hopeful that the federal government would be fully open for business by breakfast, as the House and Senate were poised to act after midnight. The lapse in funding occurred despite an agreement on a two-year budget deal, which also included full funding for the Pentagon, and a temporary funding plan for the rest of the federal government, as Sen. Rand Paul blocked action on the measure in the Senate.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer says the bipartisan budget deal before Congress would help an upstate New York fuel cell company. The Democrat says the budget deal would retroactively reinstate and extend a 30 percent investment tax credit for fuel cells.
The federal government shut down for the second time in less than a month overnight as Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul prevented a two-year budget deal from passing Thursday. Though a massive budget deal and government funding package still was expected to pass by morning, congressional negotiators were scrambling all day Thursday to lock in enough votes in the House, and that was before Paul, a Republican, made public his dissatisfaction with the deal, which would raise government spending, avert a government shutdown and lift the debt ceiling.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., is shown on television as she speaks from the House floor on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2018, as a news conference that she was supposed to attend goes on in the ... . Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., leaves the chamber after announcing an agreement in the Senate on a two-year, almost $400 billion budget deal that would provide Pentagon and domestic programs with huge spe... .
"He Was F - ing Pissed": With Rob Porter Gone, the Heat on John Kelly Is Increasing - Trump is not happy with the chaos; Jared and Ivanka are trying to right the ship; and even Hope Hicks, one of the president's closest confidants, is in trouble. - A day after White House Staff Secretary Email to FBI: Porter's friend 'actively working to quell' background check issues - White House aide's ex-wife details alleged abuse - Washington The current husband of one of Rob Porter's ex-wives emailed the FBI last January expressing concern that a close friend The 'family values' crowd is mute on Rob Porter Appearing on CNN's "New Day," Sen. Jon Tester was blunt about the Rob Porter issue.
"He Was F - ing Pissed": With Rob Porter Gone, the Heat on John Kelly Is Increasing - Trump is not happy with the chaos; Jared and Ivanka are trying to right the ship; and even Hope Hicks, one of the president's closest confidants, is in trouble. - A day after White House Staff Secretary Email to FBI: Porter's friend 'actively working to quell' background check issues - White House aide's ex-wife details alleged abuse - Washington The current husband of one of Rob Porter's ex-wives emailed the FBI last January expressing concern that a close friend The 'family values' crowd is mute on Rob Porter Appearing on CNN's "New Day," Sen. Jon Tester was blunt about the Rob Porter issue.
"He Was F - ing Pissed": With Rob Porter Gone, the Heat on John Kelly Is Increasing - Trump is not happy with the chaos; Jared and Ivanka are trying to right the ship; and even Hope Hicks, one of the president's closest confidants, is in trouble. - A day after White House Staff Secretary Email to FBI: Porter's friend 'actively working to quell' background check issues - White House aide's ex-wife details alleged abuse - Washington The current husband of one of Rob Porter's ex-wives emailed the FBI last January expressing concern that a close friend The 'family values' crowd is mute on Rob Porter Appearing on CNN's "New Day," Sen. Jon Tester was blunt about the Rob Porter issue.
With a midnight government shutdown creeping closer, both Republicans and Democrats grappled with internal party divisions in advance of hoped-for showdown votes Thursday night on a massive budget deal. Frustrations mounted as GOP Sen. Rand Paul held up voting on the broad measure in hopes of obtaining a recorded vote on reversing its spending increases.
House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., center, leaves the podium as he turns toward Rep. Mac Thornberry, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, left, after a news conference, Thursday, Feb. 8, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Republican-led Congress on Thursday was rounding up support for a bipartisan budget bill that would put the government on track for annual deficits topping $1 trillion, a gap last seen toward the end of Obama's first term.
Even with Nancy Pelosi's epic 8-hour Speech on Stilettos yesterday, it seemed as though we would get a vote out of the way in the Senate and the House would be a close, but done deal. Except now Rand Paul is on the Senate floor yammering about liberty and blocking the Senate vote.
Top House Democrat Nancy Pelosi, of California, garnered attention Wednesday with her rather impressive eight-hour filibuster on the House of Representatives floor. The 77-year-old Minority Leader of the House easily shattered the previous record of 5 hours and 15 minutes set by Missouri Rep. Champ Clark in 1909, according to The Hill.
House Speaker Paul Ryan vows that once Congress reaches a budget deal, lawmakers will take up the plight of immigrant "Dreamers" who face deportation after being brought to the U.S. illegally as children. Sen. Rand Paul speaks with reporters on his way to a vote on the floor of the U.S. Senate at the U.S. Capitol February 8, 2018 in Washington, DC.
Sen. Rand Paul speaks with reporters on his way to a vote on the floor of the U.S. Senate at the U.S. Capitol February 8, 2018 in Washington, DC. Paul is blocking the U.S. Senate from voting on a spending package reached yesterday to avoid a government shutdown.
Lawmakers pushed to enact a massive budget deal Thursday along with a stopgap temporary measure to prevent a government shutdown at midnight. GOP leaders tried to shore up support among conservatives for a plan that would shower the Pentagon with the billions they favor but also balloon the deficits they despise.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is surrounded by reporters after leaving the office of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., just before the announcement of an agreement in the Senate on a two-year, almost $400 billion budget deal that would provide Pentagon and domestic programs with huge spending increases, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2018. WASHINGTON - Two influential Republican senators have injected new information into the partisan dispute over the government's secret surveillance of a former campaign adviser to President Donald Trump, revealing more details about how the FBI and Justice Department used research compiled by a former British spy whose work was funded by Democrats.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer leaves a closed-door meeting with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell at the Capitol in Washington on Feb. 6 as they work on a plan to keep the government open for six more weeks. Eight months after Democrats began to release their "Better Deal" agenda, they're on the cusp of passing some of it into law - by tucking it into this week's must-pass spending bill.
U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow says it's too bad that court officers stopped a Michigan man from punching disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar. Stabenow says she "would have liked five minutes" with Nassar, a reference to what Randy Margraves told a judge last week before sheriff's deputies stopped him from rushing at the serial sexual abuser.
For generations, as America's authoritarian rivals strutted their tanks, troops and jets through main thoroughfares in dramatic displays of strength, the United States watched from afar, but did not emulate. Widely accepted as the world's mightiest, the U.S. military has no tradition of putting itself on parade like in Russia, North Korea or China.
Carrefour ... . An employees of French retail giant Carrefour Group protests job cuts outside a Carrefour hypermarket, in Aix-en-Provence, southern France, Thursday Feb. 8, 2018.