• The government stopped operating at 12:01 a.m. after Senate Democrats blocked passage of a stopgap spending bill.
• Giving his staff almost no notice, President Trump invited Senator Chuck Schumer to a last-ditch, one-on-one negotiating session in the Oval Office. It went nowhere.
• Leaders of both parties said they would continue to talk, raising the possibility of a solution over the weekend. But even if Senate leaders are able to work out a compromise, the deal would have to also pass the House. The government would remain closed until that happens.
• Senate Democrats, showed remarkable solidarity in the face of a clear political danger,
• Trump administration officials painted radically different scenarios of whether basic governmental functions would continue or halt if an accord was not reached.
•  Most mandatory programs — such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid that are automatically funded rather than subject to congressional appropriations — can continue without disruption.
• Who will pay the political price for the shutdown? With the rapid-fire news cycle, it may be forgotten by November.

Forty-four Democrats and four Republicans voted against the short-term spending bill that passed the House on Thursday evening, many of them saying they could not vote for a measure that does nothing for the 700,000 undocumented young people President Donald Trump has put at risk of losing protection from deportation. The bill, which needed 60 votes to proceed, failed in a 50-49 vote, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) voting against it for procedural reasons. 

Leaders in both chambers haven’t settled on a Plan B. There’s no deal to help so-called Dreamers and no agreement on an even shorter-term bill to extend funding while they work on one. There’s not even certainty about what Trump actually wants. Earlier in the day, he rejected an offer from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to fund his border wall, the Democrat said. Senators remained in the chamber discussing a path forward but didn’t find one before the deadline. 

It will be difficult to reach a long-term deal to reopen the government. Democrats want protections for Dreamers first, but White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that’s not something the administration will discuss until government funding is approved. 

The House-passed bill would fund government operations through Feb. 16, and extend funding by six years for the popular Children’s Health Insurance Program, a provision intended to secure Democratic votes.

But Democrats were seeking concessions on other priorities, such as protecting young undocumented immigrants from deportation, increasing domestic spending, securing disaster aid for Puerto Rico and bolstering the government’s response to the opioid epidemic.

The standoff on immigration dates back to September, when Mr. Trump moved to end an Obama-era program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which shields the young immigrants from deportation. Democrats have been eager to enshrine into law protections for those immigrants.

At the same time, congressional leaders from both parties have been trying to reach an agreement to raise strict limits on domestic and military spending, a deal that would pave the way for a long-term spending package. So far this fiscal year, they have relied on stopgap measures to keep the government funded.

What’s affected — and what’s not — by the government shutdown

By Rachel Wolfe