The US government was assured of careening into its second shutdown in three weeks beginning at midnight after the Senate adjourned when a conservative lawmaker blocked a vote on a far-reaching budget deal.
The upper chamber of Congress closed up shop late Thursday and scheduled a reopening for a new session at 12:01 am (0501 GMT) Friday, when it will launch a new effort to pass the bill to extend government funding.
The Senate was expected to schedule a vote on the measure at 1:00 am and, if it passes, send it to the House of Representatives and then on to President Donald Trump for his signature as early as Friday, but his administration was already preparing for a shutdown.
The White House’s Office of Management and Budget “is currently preparing for a lapse in appropriations,” an OMB official said on condition of anonymity, calling on lawmakers to get the measure to Trump’s desk “without delay.”
