Pelosi asks Trump to move State of the Union address

"However, both the US Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security have not been funded for 26 days now - with critical departments hamstrung by furloughs", she said.

The White House has delivered several offers to Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to end the shutdown, but they have been rebuffed at every turn.

Even though Trump is focused on pushing Democrats to return to the negotiating table, it was the president who walked out of the most recent talks last week after Pelosi told him she would not yield to his demands.

Pelosi invited Trump to address lawmakers on January 3, the first day of the 116th Congress, with the State of the Union date set on January 29.

"If Mrs. Pelosi refuses to allow the president to deliver the State of the Union in the House, I propose we move it to the Senate and make it happen!"

Presidents traditionally deliver their State of the Union messages at the invitation of the House speaker, although as Pelosi noted in her letter, until the Wilson administration most simply sent written messages to lawmakers. In a statement issued to the Daily Caller Wednesday, Don Jr. said Pelosi is terrified his father will get another chance to speak unfiltered about the Democrat Party's obstruction.

The standoff was triggered by Trump's demand for a round of funding for his promised wall on the U.S. -Mexico border.

A top House Republican, Louisiana's Steve Scalise (skuh-LEES'), tweets that Democrats are interested only in obstruction.

Both chambers are now planning to stay in session over the planned Martin Luther King Day recess next week, given the awful optics of skipping town amid the shutdown. Trump also needs the support of at least some Democrats in the Senate to pass funding legislation.

The shutdown is bringing an outpouring of generosity to TSA agents and other federal employees who are working without pay.

House Democrats refused to participate in a Tuesday afternoon meeting with President Donald Trump, dashing the White House's long-shot hopes of convincing moderates to circumvent their leaders and reach a grand bargain to reopen the government.

A latest funding bill initiated by the Democrats to reopen the government through February 1 failed to obtain the two-thirds majority in the House here on Tuesday.

U.S. Rep. Anthony J. Brindisi, D-22, Utica, was among seven Democrats in the bi-partisan Problem Solvers congressional caucus to meet Wednesday with President Donald Trump regarding to partial federal-government shutdown. He said both Trump and Vice President Mike Pence "spent a lot of time" with the Democrats, calling the talks "very sensible discussions that involved listening and speaking".

The White House invited rank-and-file lawmakers to lunch with Trump at the White House as part of a strategy to build support from centrist Democrats and newly elected freshmen, including those from areas where the president is popular with voters.

Wednesday's bill signing was closed to the media. "They're a little short on the R side", said Sen. Dozens of workers told the Times that they have less than one month's worth of savings to get them through the shutdown. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Chris Coons, D-Del., for a three-week respite from the shutdown while negotiators seek agreement on wall money.