Government funding negotiations hit snag after Democrats announce deal

Senate Democrats said Thursday they have struck an agreement to move forward with a package of bills to avert a partial government shutdown.

The Senate, now facing an impasse in negotiations, did not cast votes on a government funding deal on Thursday, sending the government ever closer to a partial shutdown with a little more than 24 hours until funding runs out.

Senate Democrats announced earlier Thursday they had struck an agreement with the White House to move forward with a plan that would see the Department of Homeland Security funding bill separated from a package of five other bills. Programs funded by the five-bill package would be funded until the end of September. DHS would be funded for two additional weeks to allow lawmakers to negotiate on other provisions in the package. 

The Senate must get unanimous agreement to move forward with this plan if it wants to hold votes before Friday night's deadline. As it stood Thursday night, there seemed to be objections by senators on both sides of the aisle gumming up the works. 

"Tomorrow's another day, and hopefully people will be in a spirit to try and get this done tomorrow," Majority Leader John Thune said as he was leaving the Capitol late Thursday.

If Senators can't win over the objectors by Friday, they'll force the government into a partial shutdown. The Senate will reconvene at 11 a.m. Friday to see if they can reach an agreement. Any agreement they do reach would still need to be approved by the House, so at least a brief partial shutdown is, at this stage, highly likely.