US government shutdown for second time in 3 weeks as senator holds up spending bill

The US government was assured of careening into its second shutdown in three weeks beginning at midnight after the Senate adjourned when a conservative lawmaker blocked a vote on a far-reaching budget deal.

The upper chamber of Congress closed up shop late yesterday and scheduled a reopening for a new session at 12:01 am on Saturday, when it will launch a new effort to pass the bill to extend government funding.

The Senate was expected to schedule a vote on the measure at 1:00 am and, if it passes, send it to the House of Representatives and then on to President Donald Trump for his signature as early as Friday, but his administration was already preparing for a shutdown.

The White House's Office of Management and Budget "is currently preparing for a lapse in appropriations," an OMB official said on condition of anonymity, calling on lawmakers to get the measure to Trump's desk "without delay." The bill, which extends government funding for six weeks, raises the federal debt ceiling and increases federal spending limits for the next two years, would break the cycle of government funding crises in time for what is set to be a bruising campaign for November's mid-term elections.

The rebellion that simmered among Republicans and Democrats over the bipartisan budget agreement boiled over when dogged Senator Rand Paul refused to allow the Senate to act expeditiously to pass the spending measure.

Moving legislation swiftly through the upper chamber of Congress requires consent by all 100 members, but Paul objected.

The Kentucky lawmaker took the floor to blast the increase in federal spending limits, and in particular the fiscal irresponsibility of his own party.

"I can't in all good honesty and all good faith just look the other way because my party is now complicit in the deficits," Paul said.