Some federal employees affected by the partial government shutdown are facing uncertainty as they return to work after the Christmas holiday. About 420,000 who are considered essential are working unpaid. (Dec. 26) AP


WASHINGTON – A partial government shutdown continued toward the end of its sixth day Thursday amid no signs that Congress and the White House are any closer to ending their standoff.

The Senate returned to work for the first time since Saturday but quickly adjourned after scheduling no votes, signaling that little, if any, progress has been made toward resolving the budget impasse that shut down a quarter of the federal government.

The House also returned to work Thursday but was in a session lasting less than a minute before adjourning until Monday at 10 a.m. Like the Senate, the House did not hold any votes. The office of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., sent a statement advising lawmakers that no votes were expected in the House this week.

Leaders of both chambers promised to give members 24 hours’ notice before they must return to Washington for votes.

President Donald Trump shows no sign of backing down from his demand for funding for a wall along the nation’s southern border.

“Whatever it takes,” Trump said Wednesday when asked how long the shutdown could last.

The president followed that up Thursday afternoon with tweets criticizing the "Democrats OBSTRUCTION of the desperately needed wall."

His tweet referred to Democrats blocking "350 great people wanting & expecting to come into Government," presumably a reference to presidential nominees the Republican-led Senate has yet to confirm.

Around the time the House and Senate held their brief sessions, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders admonished Democrats for leaving town, though Republicans, too, were not in Washington.

"The President and his team stayed in Washington over Christmas hoping to negotiate a deal that would stop the dangerous crisis on the border, protect American communities, and re-open the government. The Democrats decided to go home," she said in a statement.

"The only rational conclusion is that the Democrat party is openly choosing to keep our government closed to protect illegal immigrants rather than the American people," Sanders' statement continued. "The President does not want the government to remain shut down, but he will not sign a proposal that does not first prioritize our county’s safety and security.”

Drew Hammill, a spokesman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., disputed Sanders' characterization of Democrats as obstructionists.

“Democrats have offered Republicans three options to re-open government that all include funding for strong, sensible, and effective border security – but not the President's immoral, ineffective and expensive wall," he said in a statement. "With the House Majority, Democrats will act swiftly to end the Trump Shutdown, and will fight for a strategic, robust national security policy, including strong and smart border security, and strong support for our servicemembers and veterans.”

Pelosi is likely to become speaker after Democrats take control of the House of Representatives in January.

The gridlock remains stuck over border security.

“We need a wall,” Trump said Wednesday in Iraq, where he and first lady Melania Trump made a surprise visit to U.S. troops. “We need safety for our country. Even from this standpoint. We have terrorists coming in through the southern border.”

Trump said he planned on “going to the wall” early next year for a “groundbreaking” before the State of the Union address in January.

Border wall funding has been at the center of a budget dispute that has shut down nine federal departments and several smaller agencies since Saturday, forcing about 800,000 federal employees to go on furlough or work without pay.

Trump demanded $5 billion for the border wall, although he insisted repeatedly during his presidential campaign that he’d make Mexico pay for the structure.

Congressional Democrats refuse to give him the funding, arguing that a wall would be ineffective and a waste of money.

Pelosi told USA TODAY over the weekend that if the government was not reopened over the holiday, Democrats will approve a bill to do so when they take control.

That legislation is unlikely to meet the president's demands for wall funding, but it is possible it would pass the Senate. It is unclear whether Trump would sign the legislation.

The head of a union that represents thousands of federal workers took aim at Trump on Wednesday, accusing him of gambling with the lives of federal workers and rebuking him for claiming that many federal employees want the government to remain closed until the wall funding is approved.

"We have not heard from a single member who supports the president’s inaction," said Paul Shearon, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers. "Most view this as an act of ineptitude."

Trump should be concerned about the impact the shutdown has on the morale of federal employees, but instead he treats them like "a chip on a giant poker table," Shearon said.

"If the president wants to gamble, perhaps he should go back to running casinos," Shearon said. "A casino is where it’s commonplace for chips to be tossed around. Gambling with the lives of federal workers is not acceptable."

Contributing: Eliza Collins, John Fritze

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