国会领导人离开了与总统的会议唐纳德·特朗普周一下午在白宫没有达成协议，以避免政府关闭，这可能在周二晚上一天多一点的时间内生效。
会后，民主党和共和党高层相互指责，如果周二联邦政府资金短缺，政府可能会关闭。
参议院少数党领袖查克·舒默在白宫车道上对记者说,“巨大的分歧”依然存在，特别是在医疗保健问题上。
几分钟后，副总统JD Vance加入了共和党人的行列，表示政府关门的可能性越来越大。
“我认为我们正在走向关闭，因为民主党人不会做正确的事情，”万斯说。
回到国会大厦，指责仍在继续。
舒默告诉记者:“他们只是想把医疗保健问题往后推。”。
众议院少数党领袖哈基姆·杰弗里斯说:“(如果)政府关门，那是因为共和党人决定关门，伤害了美国人民。”。
与特朗普的高风险会晤是双方共同谈判的最后努力。如果没有达成协议，政府从周三凌晨开始关闭的可能性似乎更大。
在会议前几个小时，白宫新闻秘书卡罗琳·莱维特说，周一与两党国会领导人“没有什么可谈判的”,因为政府继续推动立法者通过一项被称为清洁持续决议的短期拨款法案。
“我们的信息和我们想要的非常简单:总统希望政府保持开放。他想继续资助政府。莱维特星期一早上在白宫对记者说:“民主党人没有充分的理由投票反对这项干净的持续决议。”。"总统今天给了民主党人最后一次讲道理的机会。"
在周二晚上的最后期限之前，两党议员都在努力工作，民主党人坚持他们的立场，即如果没有医疗保健方面的让步，他们不会投票让政府保持开放。
根据国会预算办公室(Congressional Budget Office)的数据，这些要求包括恢复今年夏天通过的1万亿美元医疗补助削减，以及将于今年年底到期的奥巴马医改(Obamacare)补贴的永久延长，在未来十年内为380万人节省3500亿美元的医疗保险。
“众议院民主党人和参议院民主党人步调一致，”杰弗里斯周一早上在国会大厦对记者说，并补充说，他将参加会议，“就飞机着陆进行真诚的谈判，以避免政府关闭，但不会继续共和党对美国人民医疗保健的攻击。”
这次会议标志着特朗普第二任期的第一次两院制、两党国会领导层面对面的会议——此前，总统在上周表示，他审查了民主党的提案，并判断会议不会有成效，因此取消了原定的会议。
“共和党人控制着众议院和参议院，作为一名共和党总统，如果政府关门，那是因为共和党人想关闭政府，”杰弗里斯说。
白宫会议后，一些民主党参议员似乎愿意承担因他们要求恢复医疗保健资金而关闭的责任。
“嗯，会有一场指责游戏，而你们，你们将决定谁该受到指责。但这里的底线是，这是一个共同的情况，”佛蒙特州参议员彼得韦尔奇说。韦尔奇补充说:“所以你有这种情况，没有(来自共和党的)谈判，然后你有这种医疗保健危机，这是我们非常关心的问题。”。
代表该州联邦雇员人数第二多的弗吉尼亚州参议员蒂姆·凯恩表示，他担心政府关门的潜在影响和特朗普威胁的额外裁员。但是他仍然相信这是民主党坚持立场的时刻。
凯恩周一晚上告诉记者说:“我认为要求交易就是交易，我们解决我的选民的医疗保健需求没有问题。”“我是说，难道不是这样的吗。我们愿意谈判。特朗普总统告诉众议院，不要在提出提案时与民主党人打交道。我们提出了一个替代方案。有，有什么问题吗?提出一个替代方案?
据舒默的一名助手称，周一的会议是在舒默恳求参议院多数党领袖约翰·图恩(John Thune)帮助接通特朗普之后达成的——尽管杰弗里斯似乎对旷日持久的谈判前景无动于衷。
上周，白宫向联邦机构发布了他们应该考虑的指南执行武力削减对于其工作被认为对政府运作不可或缺的联邦雇员来说，此举旨在增加民主党人的压力，他们的目标是保护已经被特朗普政府削减的联邦劳动力。
虽然众议院共和党人通过了一项权宜措施，以使政府开放到11月21日，但该措施在参议院陷入停滞，至少有七名民主党人必须投票支持任何避免关闭的措施。
共和党人精心制作了一份“干净”的七周临时法案，以便为国会拨款者创造更多时间来完成常规订单:12个单独的全年拨款法案。自1997年以来，国会没有通过常规命令通过所有12项拨款法案，自1977年现行预算规则生效以来，这项任务只完成了四次。
迈克·约翰逊议长周末坚称，通过短期持续决议是为常规拨款程序“争取一点时间”。
约翰逊周日在美国有线电视新闻网(CNN)上说:“奥巴马医改补贴是一场政策辩论，必须在今年年底，即12月31日之前做出决定——不是现在，我们只是想让政府保持开放，这样我们就可以进行所有这些辩论。”
自1980年以来，联邦政府因拨款失误而关闭了10次，其中最长的一次关闭是在特朗普第一次执政期间，持续了35天。
Trump, top Democrats fail to make progress in averting looming shutdown
Congressional leaders left a meeting with PresidentDonald Trumpat the White House Monday afternoon without a deal to avert a government shutdown that could go into effect in little more than a day later on Tuesday night.
After the meeting, the top Democrats and Republicans blamed each other for a potential government shutdown if there's a lapse in federal government funding at the end of the day Tuesday.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters in the White House driveway that "large differences" remain -- particularly on health care.
A few minutes later, Vice President JD Vance joined Republicans in saying a shutdown was increasingly likely.
"I think we’re headed to a shutdown because Democrats won’t do the right thing," Vance said.
Back at the Capitol, the blame-placing continued.
“They just wanted to kick the health care problem down the road,” Schumer told reporters.
“[If] the government shuts down, it's because Republicans have decided to shut the government down and hurt the American people,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said.
The high-stakes meeting with Trump was a last-ditch effort for both sides to come together to negotiate. Without a deal, there appears to be a greater chance of a government shutdown starting early Wednesday morning.
Hours before the meeting, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that there's "nothing to negotiate" with bipartisan congressional leadership Monday -- as the administration continues to push lawmakers to pass a short-term funding bill known as a clean clean continuing resolution.
"Our message and what we want out of this is very simple: The president wants to keep the government open. He wants to keep the government funded. There is zero good reason for Democrats to vote against this clean continuing resolution,” Leavitt told reporters at the White House Monday morning. “The president is giving Democrats one last chance to be reasonable today.”
Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are digging in ahead of the Tuesday night deadline -- with Democrats maintaining their posture that they will not vote to keep the government open without lofty health care concessions.
Those demands include restoring $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts passed into law this summer on top of a permanent extension of the Obamacare subsidies set to expire at the end of the year, saving health insurance for 3.8 million people at a cost of $350 billion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
"House Democrats, Senate Democrats are in lockstep," Jeffries told reporters Monday morning at the Capitol, adding that he was heading to the meeting to have "a good faith negotiation about landing the plane in a way that avoids a government shutdown but does not continue the Republican assault on the health care of the American people."
The meeting marked the first bicameral, bipartisan congressional leadership face-to-face meeting of Trump’s second term -- and came after a previously scheduled meeting last week was nixed by the president after he said he reviewed the Democratic proposal and judged that a meeting would not be productive.
"Republicans control the House and the Senate, and as a Republican president, if the government shuts down, it's because Republicans want to shut the government down," Jeffries said.
After the White House meeting, some Democratic senators appeared to be willing to take the blame for a shutdown over their demands to restore health care funding.
"Well, there will be the blame game, and you guys, you guys will be making your decisions on who to assign the blame. But the bottom line here, it's a shared situation," Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont said. “So you've got this situation where there have been no negotiations [from Republicans], and then you've got this crisis in health care, which is an enormous concern for us,” Welch added.
Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, who represents the state with the second-highest number of federal employees, said he’s concerned about the shutdown’s potential impact and the additional layoffs that Trump has threatened. But he still believes this is the moment for Democrats to hold the line.
“I don't think there's a problem in asking that a deal be a deal, and that we address health care needs for my constituents,” Kaine told reporters Monday evening. "I mean, isn't this is the way this is done. We're willing to negotiate. President Trump told the House, don't even deal with the Democrats in coming up with the proposal. We put an alternative on the table. Is there, is there something wrong with that? Putting up an alternative?
Monday's meeting was agreed to after Schumer implored Senate Majority Leader John Thune for help getting through to Trump, according to a Schumer aide -- though Jeffries seems unmoved by the prospect of drawn-out negotiations.
Last week, the White House issued guidance to federal agencies that they should considerexecuting a reduction in forcefor federal employees whose jobs are not deemed essential to government operations -- a move intended to increase pressure on Democrats who have a stated goal to protect a federal workforce that’s already been slashed by the Trump administration.
While House Republicans passed a stop-gap measure to keep the government open through Nov. 21, the measure has stalled in the Senate, where at least seven Democrats must vote for any measure that staves off a shutdown.
Republicans crafted a "clean" seven-week stop-gap bill in order to create more time for congressional appropriators to work through regular order: 12 separate full-year funding bills. Congress has not passed all 12 appropriations bills through regular order since 1997, and the task has only been completed four times since 1977 when current budget rules took effect.
Speaker Mike Johnson maintained over the weekend that passing the short-term continuing resolution is "buying a little time" for the regular appropriations process.
"The Obamacare subsidies is a policy debate that has to be determined by the end of the year, Dec. 31 -- not right now, while we're simply trying to keep the government open so we can have all these debates," Johnson said on CNN on Sunday.
The federal government has shut down due to a lapse in appropriations 10 times since 1980, with the longest shutdown, 35 days, occurring during the first Trump administration.
