What’s next with shutdown after Senate again fails to pass bills aimed at funding government?

(WASHINGTON) — The Senate on Wednesday — the first day of a government shutdown — once again failed to pass bills aimed at funding the government as congressional leaders continue to trade blame for the shutdown.

Negotiations appear to be underway, and Friday is the next opportunity for the Senate to vote on government funding — leaving many Americans to wonder what’s next with the shutdown.

The Senate held two votes on funding bills that mirrored the failed votes they took on Tuesday, resulting in a government shutdown that took effect at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. Both failed — resulting in the government shutdown continuing.

What’s next?

After the failing of the bills Wednesday morning, the Senate is expected to take votes on other matters in the afternoon and then they’re expected to depart for Yom Kippur. Though things could always change if some sort of deal is struck.

The Senate is not expected to hold any additional votes on government funding until Friday at the earliest, all but assuring this shutdown stretches on at least until Friday. 

Bipartisan path forward?

During Wednesday’s vote on whether to advance a seven-week stopgap funding bill, a large bipartisan huddle of senators gathered. The group included a number of closely watched moderates including Sens. Gary Peters, Jacky Rosen, Raphael Warnock, Ruben Gallego, Ben Ray Lujan and more.

Lawmakers who left that huddle told ABC News that the conversations they were having were preliminary. But it’s clear a bipartisan group is coming together that’s looking for some sort of shutdown off ramp.

“The Democrats who you saw there are trying to find a good faith way to move forward, get the ACA tax credits that we want, and also some of the appropriations that they are asking for,” Sen. Ruben Gallego, who was part of the group, told reporters. 

One of the possibilities being floated among the group include trying to pass a shorter-term government funding bill to allow some additional breathing room for negotiations on the Affordable Care Act tax credit extensions that Democrats say they want, according to sources.

Sen. Mike Rounds, who appeared to be among the key GOP negotiators in the huddle, said Republicans are trying to convince a group of Democrats that opening the government back up would create the best avenue to continue negotiations on health care. 

“We’re trying to convince them this is the right thing to do: find the path forward, get the 10 votes or more to move forward with this, and then let’s go right to work on fixing the issues that they were concerned about,” Rounds said. 

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal said that there’s “a lot of bipartisan hope” that the shutdown would be as “short and costless as possible” — adding that negotiations would be ongoing. 

“There are real and significant glimmers of hope that we could have a meeting of the minds,” Blumenthal said. 

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who has been leading Senate Democrats in their blockade against a short term funding bill unless health care needs or met, was not in the huddle. But he seemed encouraged by it. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters on Wednesday that he was aware of the bipartisan huddle and that he’s also engaged in discussions with members of both sides to come up with a solution to fund the government. 

Wednesday’s votes

The first vote that failed in the Senate was, once again, a procedural vote on the Democrats’ government funding proposal that includes the health care provisions they’ve been seeking. It failed by a vote of 47-53. As was the case on Tuesday night, every Democrat voted for it and every Republican voted against it. 

The second vote in the series was a procedural vote on the clean, House-backed Republican stop-gap funding bill that failed Tuesday night. Democrats continued to hold the line during Wednesday’s vote, leading it to fail with a vote of 55-45.

Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and John Fetterman, as well as independent Angus King, voted — as they had Tuesday — with Republicans to advance the GOP funding solution. But no additional Democrats broke ranks during the vote series. Republican Sen. Rand Paul voted no, so Republicans would have needed to pick up at least five more Democrats to advance this bill, which needed 60 votes to pass.

Thune said that Republicans are on the hunt for those few additional Democrats to support their clean, short term funding bill.

Senate leaders place blame on opposing party

In floor remarks ahead of the Wednesday votes, both leaders opened by blaming the other party.

“Here we are, Democrats have bowed to the far left and they’ve shut down the federal government,” Thune said on the floor. “As of this morning critical federal employees including members of the military, border patrol agents and air traffic controllers are working without pay and a number of government services are unavailable or at risk.”

Schumer, meanwhile, said “Donald Trump and Republicans have barreled us into a shutdown because they refuse to protect America’s health care.”

Schumer, in his speech, said Republicans won’t be able to “bully” Democrats into stepping down from their demands that health care be addressed as part of government funding. 

At a press conference Wednesday morning, Thune said Democrats “have taken the American people hostage in a way that they think benefits them politically, at the consequence of the cost of what’s going to happen to the American families if this government shutdown continues.”

Speaker Mike Johnson slammed Democrats during the Wednesday morning press conference.

“Every single bit of this was entirely avoidable,” Johnson said, adding that Democrats should pass the clean CR as they did in the House.

“Democrats in Congress have dragged our country into another reckless shutdown to satisfy their far-left base,” Johnson said. “Whether or not the government remains open or reopens is entirely up to them.”

Democrats hit back during a press conference of their own Wednesday morning.

“Republicans control the Senate, the House and the White House. They need Democratic votes to fund the government, so it’s on them to talk with us,” House Democratic Caucus Vice Chair Pete Aguilar said.

On Tuesday, Schumer urged Republicans to come to the negotiating table.

“So, we want to sit down and negotiate, but the Republicans can’t do it in their partisan way, where they just say ‘It’s our way or the highway,’” Schumer reiterated at a news conference following Senate votes Tuesday night. 

Schumer rehashed the failed votes on the Senate floor — placing the blame on Republicans who “have failed to get enough votes to avoid a shutdown.” 

ABC News’ Lauren Peller and Sarah Beth Hensley contributed to this report.

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