Trump Administration and Republicans Suffer Historic Failure After Democrats Vote for Government Shutdown

The federal government of the United States will shut down following a remarkable vote that found the Republican Party, which controls both chambers of Congress and the White House, unable to pass a continuing resolution on a federal budget to keep the government open.

This is the first time in American history that the federal government has shut down when a single party controls both congressional chambers and the presidency.

Protection for young people under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy was a major sticking point for Democrats, whose constituents encouraged them to vote against the continuing resolution if the issue wasn't resolved. Without Democratic votes, the continuing resolution couldn’t reach the needed 60-vote threshold.

President Donald Trump has been a confounding factor throughout the process, never offering a clear path for Republicans on what a deal with the Democrats should look like.

Trump repeatedly attacked Democrats ahead of the shutdown, ignoring the fact that some members of his own party planned to vote against the continuing resolution for various reasons. A last-minute meeting between the president and Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) did not end with an actionable deal.

Trump's previous comments that the country "needs a good 'shutdown'" are likely to haunt the GOP during this year's midterm elections, as such shutdowns can impact hundreds of thousands of workers. During the peak of the 2013 shutdown, 850,000 employees were furloughed per day.