House Republicans and Senate Democrats were locked in a war of wills Monday night that threatened to shut down the U.S. government and leave a laundry list of federal services suddenly unavailable.
Dow futures were up 33 points, though, as markets actually saw some upside to a shutdown. (What's the market doing now? Click here)
The Senate wants a "clean bill" to continue funding the government after Monday, with no strings attached, while the House wants to tie any such "continuing resolution" to the defunding of the Affordable Care Act (AKA "Obamacare.")
With a midnight deadline to take action or shut down the government, there appeared to be little chance of a deal.
Follow along with CNBC.com's liveblog of events (all times ET) for all the minute-by-minute developments, and for more on the debate see the links below:
- Shutdown: What you need to know
- Medical devices behind the budget debate
- Market has bigger worries than the shutdown
- S&P to hold off downgrade for now
12:07: That concludes this evening's liveblog. Please check back with CNBC.com throughout the evening for further updates on the U.S. government shutdown.
12:06: The Senate plans to take up the House's latest motions at 9:30 a.m. ET Tuesday.
12:02: Dow futures still up 26 points.
Meanwhile, networks have shifted from counting down to the shutdown, to counting up to mark how long the shutdown has lasted!
12:00: And there you have it.
11:49: The OMB has issued a directive to government agencies, ordering them to "execute plans for an orderly shutdown." (Read the full directive here).
11:45: With 15 minutes to go, speeches are in progress on both the House and Senate floors.
11:40: A growing number of Washington-area attractions, including museums and restaurants, are offering free admission and other enticements tomorrow for anyone suddenly unemployed by the shutdown. (By some estimates the shutdown-related furloughs would affect 800,000 people).
11:33: Less than 30 minutes to the deadline. Presumably government agencies are now receiving their official notices that they will be shut down tomorrow, as per earlier reports on the OMB's plans.
11:29: The potential effects of the shutdown, large and small, are starting to become evident. Asteroid Watch, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory project that tracks large and small objects threatening to collide with Earth, made the following statement a few moments ago:
11:27: Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), of the House Budget Committee, calling out House Republicans for not agreeing to a budget conference in the spring.
11:21: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi invoking George Washington and his admonitions about political parties and government in a late-night news conference.
11:18: Not clear if the Office of Management and Budget will communicate its plans publicly, but it does maintain a Twitter account on @OMBPress.
11:11: Less than 20 minutes until the OMB has to start sending the orders out to shut the government down. As the Huffington Post noted, OMB Director Sylvia Mathews Burwell (a former charity executive who worked at the budget office in the 1990s) has suddenly become really, really important.
11:03: Reid's "gun to our head" comment already breaking out as the line of the night. Being broadly taken as greatly diminishing the chances of a conference solution to the funding problem.
10:58: "We will not go to conference with a gun to our head. The first thing the House has to do is pass a clean six-week CR," Reid said, in reference to the continuing resolution to fund the government.
10:57: "This is a very serious time in the history of the country," Sen. Reid says on the Senate floor.
10:55: White House press corps reporting that they've been advised Pres. Obama won't be appearing on camera again tonight.
10:49: The communications director for Rep. Eric Cantor, the House majority leader, just tweeted that the House will in fact vote again this evening.
10:45: Still no word on whether there will or will not be votes tonight.
In the meantime, though, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan took to Twitter and did not pull any punches.
10:38: Now it gets confusing. Within the last 5 minutes, the Wall Street Journal tweeted that there would be another vote tonight, and the Washington Post tweeted that there would not. Less than an hour until the reported OMB deadline.
10:32: With more than 2,000 votes in, 58 percent of those taking CNBC.com's poll believe the government should be shut down tonight.
10:28: White House photographer Pete Souza tweets a photo of President Obama signing the legislation that ensures members of the military will be paid, even in the event of a shutdown. (Much being made by commenters of the open collar and choice of beverage, apparently a popular brand of iced tea).
10:17: The AP reports that 11:30 p.m. ET is the deadline for the Office of Management and Budget to notify agencies whether there'll be a shutdown tomorrow or night. So, T-minus 72 minutes now.
10:12: It's official now, the House GOP will move toward appointing members of a conference committee to negotiate a budget deal with the Senate. Not clear what that means in terms of a schedule for rest of evening or for a shutdown.
10:02: With less than two hours to go, the latest reports (via Chuck Todd) suggest House Republicans may propose a conference with the Senate to work out differences between their bills, a change in tactic that would still mean a shutdown.
9:53: Latest timetable notes via the @NBCPolitics team: Sen. Reid planning on being recognized again on the Senate floor around 11 p.m. ET.
9:47: Perhaps the most talked-about moment of the whole evening thus far has been Speaker Boehner's speech on the House floor in which, some say, he mocked President Obama. Watch the video to the left.
9:39: The battle in Congress notwithstanding, Dow futures are up 43 points. Market pros are mostly dismissing the prospect of a short-term shutdown as posturing.
9:28: No word on the House's next plans. Two hours, 32 minutes to go.
9:24: The Senate has just voted to reject the latest House bill, passed only 40 or so minutes ago. The universally expected move means the House should get a fresh continuing resolution with no Obamacare provisions by 10 p.m. ET or thereabouts.
9:11: Within the last few minutes President Obama tweeted via the White House account, urging Congress to pass a budget and avert a shutdown. (The -bo at the end is is the president's customary signature on a tweet).
9:04: CNN reports, citing sources, that it is possible there may be one or even two more volleys tonight (House passes a bill, Senate rejects the bill, Senate passes their own bill and sends it back to the house).
9:00: Various members of the White House press corps reporting that the White House Briefing Room is being kept open until 12:30 a.m. ET. (The shutdown begins at midnight).
8:55: Watch Sen. Cruz on his plan to donate his salary during a shutdown.
8:54: Harry Reid, on the Senate floor, says House Republicans "have lost their minds." T-minus 3 hours, 6 minutes until the shutdown.
8:41: The U.S. House of Representatives has voted to approve a government funding bill that also delays portions of the Obamacare health insurance initiative.
8:30: More timeline, from NBC's Chuck Todd - the House is expected to get a spending bill back from the Senate around 10 p.m. ET.
8:28: Wolf Blitzer on a new poll that shows Congress has a 10 percent approval rating: "Chances are influenza polls better than that."
8:27: About 10 minutes in, about 2/3 of the House has yet to vote.
8:21: Via CNBC's DC team, latest word is that the Senate will reconvene as soon as 9 p.m. ET to "table" the latest House resolution, effectively killing it immediately.
8:18: The House appears to have begun voting.
8:07: Boehner speaking on the House floor. "Let's listen to our constituents and lets treat them they way they would want to be treated," he said to applause.
8:07: "I can never forgive Ted Cruz for what he's done," King said. He also expects a series of back-and-forth votes throughout the night.
8:05: Rep. Peter King (R-NY) tells CNN there was nothing personal about his participation in the failed GOP revolt in the House a few minutes ago.
"I want to end this process. It's going nowhere. It's a dead end," he said.
7:51: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) live on "Kudlow Report." Cruz spoke for 21 straight hours in the Senate last week in an effort to defund Obamacare as part of the government funding process.
"I don't think we should have a government shutdown, but at the same time both Harry Reid and President Obama are refusing to negotiate at all. President Obama will negotiate with Iran but he wont negotiate with leaders of Congress," Cruz said.
7:49: Tonight's shutdown meal, per Robert Costa and courtesy Congressional leadership:Chipotle.
7:37: We're told the House is due to vote sometime around 8:15 p.m. ET to 8:30 p.m. ET on the latest plan. If the measure passes, the ball goes back in the Senate's court.
7:34: Duly noted: About 61 percent of respondents in CNBC.com's unscientific poll want the government to be shut down tonight, with 39 percent against.
7:26: Some talk that the House could vote within the next hour on the latest version of its continuing resolution. What's not immediately clear is what condition that resolution would have -- defunding Obamacare, delaying its implementation, eliminating the medical device tax etc.
7:24: Everyone appears to have an opinion on the looming shutdown. Everyone.
7:17: A House Republican "revolt," as some are calling it, has just failed. The procedural move would have likely meant a "clean" continuing resolution without an Obamacare link.
6:56: ABC's Jon Karl reports Pres. Obama and Speaker Boehner spoke by phone, their first conversation since last Friday -- mostly so each could reaffirm their positions.
6:52: CNN airing the results of a poll, asking whether the political parties were behaving like spoiled children. Some 69 percent said "yes" for the Republicans, 58 percent for the Democrats. (About 44 percent said President Obama was himself acting spoiled).
6:43: House vote running behind schedule. As some reporting, including National Review'sRobert Costa (a CNBC contributor), there are divisions within the House GOP about another resolution that would attach Obamacare conditions.
6:32: Noted conservative blogger Erick Erickson weighs in with a rather pointed recommendation for House Republicans on what to do tonight.
6:27: "You owe it to the American people to hold a vote," Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) said in a floor speech to House Speaker John Boehner.
Levin also calls a separate bill to pay soldiers during a shutdown "one travesty among many to be avoided."
6:12: Casey paraphrasing Moody's Mark Zandi now on the economic impacts of a shutdown. Zandi's forecasts were reported in a Bloomberg News story here the other day. (Zandi thinks a shutdown of even three weeks could take 1.4 percentage points off fourth-quarter GDP).
6:09: "This one is unique in the sense that you have on the one side Democrats in Congress and I think across the country united to continue the operations of government ... even if we want to make a point. You see a growing number of Republicans here in the Senate and across the country, even in the House over the last 24 hours or so ... saying 'let's just get the government funded so we can move forward,'" Sen. Robert Casey (D-PA) said in a floor speech.
6:00: "A shutdown would hurt the financing of more than 1,000 small businesses a week in my state," Ohio. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, said on the Senate floor.