Deirdre Walsh

We've seen the Pentagon move around money to pay the military.

The administration has tapped tariff revenue to pay for a program providing nutritional assistance to low-income families.

And OMB is canceling transportation and energy projects targeting blue states and districts.

So what does this mean for Talks on the Hill?

There's just less pressure to get a deal because some of the impacts are not being felt as widely by the public yet.

And instead of Democrats feeling pressure to fold because their projects are being targeted, they're digging in.

saying this is more of the same thing from the Trump administration.

Cuts and layoffs, those were happening before the shutdown.

Most Democrats say what the Trump administration is doing is illegal.

It's Congress that holds the power of the purse.

I talked to Virginia Democratic Congressman James Walkinshaw at a rally on the East Front steps last week,

He supports paying the troops, but says what the administration is doing is just not sustainable.

We are.

The Senate has voted 10 times on the House-passed stopgap bill.

That one funds federal agencies through November 21st, and they're going to vote again tonight.

But it takes 60 votes to advance that bill in the Senate.

Senate Democrats are expected to keep blocking it, insisting any deal to reopen the government has to address these health care subsidies that are expiring at the end of the year.

Also this week, Senate Majority Leader John Thune is planning to bring up another targeted bill.

that will ensure federal employees who are working during the shutdown get paid.

But there's no real bipartisan talks in the Senate about a way out, and the House hasn't voted or even been in town for a month.