Democrats' last-minute move to block GOP funding plan sends lawmakers home early

Senate Republicans tried to advance a funding package as their last act of the year, but a last-minute block by Senate Democrats sent lawmakers home frustrated as the deadline to fund the government creeps closer.

The package would have funded the departments of Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Commerce, Justice, Interior, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, which represent a massive chunk of Congress' overall funding responsibilities.

But a deal never materialized, and the lights of the Senate chamber went out for the last time of the year as lawmakers beelined from Washington, D.C., back to their home districts. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., remained hopeful that when the Senate returned, Democrats would cross the aisle to finish the job.

"The Democrats are indicating that they want to do them, they just didn't want to do them today," Thune said. "So hopefully, when we get back, we'll test that proposition, and hope that we'll take them to face value, and hopefully we'll get moving, and get moving quickly, because we've got a lot to do."

Before the last gavel rang through the chamber, however, there was still hope that a deal could be reached.

As the clock ticked deeper into the night and the smell of jet fumes grew stronger in the Senate, top Republicans kept working the phones and trying to negotiate a path forward on the package.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, told Fox News Digital that Republicans had cleared the decks on their end after several weeks of holds on the package from fiscal hawks demanding amendment votes on earmarks, among other thorny issues.

When asked if Senate Democrats would play ball, she said, "I don't know."

"I'm about to call one of the people," Collins said before ducking into her office.

Hickenlooper suggested that he and Bennet would lift their hold only if they received a guaranteed outcome on an amendment vote - a proposition Republicans have time and again this year for several other Democratic issues that they said they couldn't do.

"We need to find some Republican supporters. All we're trying to do is just protect the budget that was already there," Hickenlooper said. "So, whatever disagreement there is between the state, the governor of Colorado, and the President of the United States, that shouldn't affect a scientific institution. Science should be free of that kind of politics."

"What the president did to Colorado is disgusting, and Republicans ought to get him to change," Schumer said.

It was a bid to buy time to keep negotiations alive in the hopes of a breakthrough. They even tacked on a handful of extra votes to keep the machine whirring, but in the end, Senate Democrats wouldn't budge.

"If we want the Senate to matter, we should figure it out," Britt said.

Failure to advance the package on Thursday does not guarantee another government shutdown next month, but it does tee up what will likely be a brutal January in the upper chamber.

Lawmakers are still scrambling to find a deal on expiring Obamacare subsidies, which are set to expire on Dec. 31, and they will have to contend with the funding deadline at the end of the month. And anything that can pass in the Senate has to make its way through the House and ultimately be approved by Trump.

Despite the inability to move forward with the funding package, for now, it appears that neither side wants to thrust the federal government into another shutdown.

"I don't think either side wants to see that happen," Thune said. "I think that's toxic for both parties. So I'm hoping that there will be goodwill, and we'll figure out how to fund the government."