The U.S. government shutdown has stretched on for so long that you may have to reschedule your State of the Union drinking game.

The national address was originally scheduled to be held on January 29, but because of the shutdown, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has asked the president to reschedule his speech, write it all down in a heartfelt letter, or, you know, let the government reopen.

“Sadly, given the security concerns, and unless government reopens this week, I suggest that we work together to determine another suitable date after government has reopened for this address, or for you to consider delivering your State of the Union address in writing to the Congress on January 29,” Pelosi wrote in a letter to Donald Trump, which Politico obtained.

As speaker of the house, Pelosi has to issue a formal invitation to the president to come to Congress for the annual speech. After sending the letter, reporters asked Pelosi if she was disinviting him. Pelosi denied it was anything more than a security concern, telling reporters, “He can make it from the Oval Office if he wants.”

The not-disinvitation comes on the 26th day of the government shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, as the president continues to insist that the only spending bill he will approve is one that includes $5 billion in funding for a border wall. Democrats have refused to agree with that demand and, security risk or not, probably don’t want to give the president (another) very public platform to extol the virtues of a wall. For now, polls show that most of the public pins the blame for the shutdown on the president.</s>House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Wednesday called for President Trump to postpone his upcoming State of the Union address, citing the likelihood that the government would be shut down during the day he’s slated to give it.

“Sadly,” Pelosi wrote in a letter to Trump, “given the security concerns and unless government re-opens this week, I suggest that we work together to determine another suitable date after government has re-opened for this address or for you to consider delivering your State of the Union address in writing to the Congress on January 29th.”

The letter, which comes as the White House is attempting to persuade moderate House Democrats to break ranks and vote for border-wall funding, demonstrably raises the political stakes of a shutdown fight that now is the longest in American history.

While there is no formal obligation that the president deliver an actual address before Congress on a yearly basis—merely that he or she update lawmakers on the state of the union—a high-profile speech has become a ceremonial rite of passage for a president. Pelosi’s insistence that one not take place while the government is closed is both a clear assertion of power on her part and a strategic attempt to deprive Trump of the stage he craves.

“She understands the symbolism of [the speech] happening when the government is shut down is inappropriate,” one Democratic lawmaker said. “It’s kind of bizarre that you shut the government down and then would come and give a speech on the state of the union. The state of the union is closed,” another Democratic lawmaker said. “Also, knowing how desperately he wants to give this speech, this is just going to drive him crazy!”

The White House did not immediately return a request for comment on Pelosi’s letter. But her letter sparked both anger among Republicans and a bit of begrudging respect for its boldness.

“It shows she has leverage and is willing to use it [and] it hits Trump where it hurts—massive media attention,” said Doug Heye, who, as Republican National Committee press secretary in 2010, led the Fire-Pelosi campaign that dislodged her as speaker that election cycle. “And I think this is being somewhat mis-reported. While the letter contains all the niceties and courtesies, Pelosi isn’t asking Trump not to come. She is telling him he won’t be allowed.”

Before sending her letter to Trump on Wednesday, Pelosi read it to her fellow Democrats during a caucus meeting in the morning. According to a lawmaker in the room, “there was a very positive reaction”—reflecting the unified front that the party has adopted during the shutdown fight.

In her letter, Pelosi noted that the government agencies responsible for managing security during the State of the Union, including the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security, “have not been funded for 26 days now–with critical departments hamstrung by furloughs.”</s>Speaker Nancy Pelosi ignored it when thirty of her Progressive Democrat House members romped on the beach in Puerto Rico with 109 lobbyists and corporation heads during the shutdown, and she refuses to negotiate at all with the President on border security. She has just topped that off by disinviting the President from giving the State of the Union address.

Her outlandish excuse for disinviting the President is that there’s not enough money to have all those people come and provide security. Ridiculous.

When will people see her for what she is? This woman will not protect our borders and will make no offers for a compromise. That is what people do in Banana Republics.

A bipartisan group of House members will be meeting later today with President Trump to talk about solving the ongoing border security debate and end the government shutdown.

Some freshmen Democrats have had enough.

The President invited select Democrats to the White House yesterday to attempt a negotiation, but they boycotted the meeting.

Pelosi keeps her people on a leash. However, there are some Democrats who want a compromise and support a border barrier.

From the Politico Playbook morning briefing: “THE PROBLEM SOLVERS CAUCUS — a bipartisan group of House members — is going to the White House today at 11:30 a.m. for a meeting with PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP. They are meeting in the Situation Room, far away from everyone else in the White House. Republicans and Democrats are expected to attend this meeting.”

The only possible outcome of the meeting is the Democrats who attend will pressure Pelosi, but they are all afraid of her. If he could wean away some votes, he might get something passed, but that’s not likely at this point.

Pelosi’s actions are insane. Of course, we need security at the border, and one of those measures has to be more wall. If the corporations didn’t want the cheap labor, it would be a different story. And if the incoming illegal aliens were voting Republicans, the Democrats would be lined up at the border shooting them.

People are out of work, and she won’t compromise. She’s a horrible person.</s>House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called on President Donald Trump on Wednesday to delay making the State of the Union address or deliver it by writing due to the partial government shutdown.

“Sadly, given the security concerns and unless government re-opens this week, I suggest that we work together to determine another suitable date after government has re-opened for this address or for you to consider delivering your State of the Union address in writing to the Congress on January 29th,” Pelosi wrote in a letter to Trump.

The speaker noted that last September, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen designated State of the Union addresses as “National Special Security Events,” necessitating “the full resources of the Federal Government to be brought to bear.”

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“The extraordinary demands presented by NSSEs require weeks of detailed planning with dozens of agencies working together to prepare for the safety of all participants,” the California Democrat wrote.

“However, both the U.S. Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security have not been funded for 26 days now — with critical departments hamstrung by furloughs,” Pelosi said.

She further pointed out the State of the Union addresses were delivered in writing until the presidency of Woodrow Wilson in the early 1900s.

CNBC reported that the speaker suggested on Wednesday that Trump “can make it from the Oval Office if he wants.”

The president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., claimed the real reason Pelosi is calling for a delay is because she is “terrified” of the chief executive getting another chance to directly speak to the nation, following his Oval Office address regarding the shutdown and border security last week.

“Speaker Pelosi is clearly attempting to block my father from giving his State of the Union speech, not because 20 percent of the government is shut down, but because she is terrified of him having another opportunity to speak directly to the American people about her party’s obstruction, unfiltered and without her friends in the media running interference for her,” Trump Jr. told The Daily Caller.

“Pelosi correctly recognizes that the more President Trump shines a spotlight on the very real human tragedies that occur because of her and her party’s open border policies, the more of a political loser it becomes for them,” he added.

Daily Wire editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro suggested that Trump deliver the speech from the U.S.-Mexico border instead of the Capitol and include Border Patrol agents and Angel Moms.

Fox Business host Charles Payne mocked Pelosi, tweeting, “Perhaps President Trump could order the addition of drones and sensors to make Speaker Pelosi feel safe enough to attend the State of the Union address.”

After Pelosi called a wall between nations “an immorality” last month, Trump noted that additional drones and other technology measures the speaker has supported will not, in themselves, physically stop anyone from crossing the border.

The president has requested $5.7 billion to build approximately 230 miles in new border barriers, while Democrats have offered $1.3 billion for border security but specified it cannot be used for a border wall.

Trump tweeted on Wednesday, “It is becoming more and more obvious that the Radical Democrats are a Party of open borders and crime.”

He continued, “They want nothing to do with the major Humanitarian Crisis on our Southern Border.”

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.</s>Members of Congress, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, were reportedly on their way to the airport for a delegation to Europe and the Middle East when a message came from the White House: President Trump was canceling their trip. The bus carrying members for the flight to Brussels returned to Capitol Hill.

The move was widely and understandably seen as retribution by Trump for a letter Pelosi (D-Calif.) sent to him Wednesday suggesting his State of the Union address be postponed, given the ongoing government shutdown and the security demands of the elaborate plans that speech often entails. This was the ostensible rationale behind Trump’s move, too.

“In light of the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay, I am sure that you would agree that postponing this public relations event is totally appropriate,” Trump wrote. He suggested that she not leave for a week, so that the shutdown might be resolved more quickly.

A spokesman for Pelosi quickly pointed out that the trip wasn’t going to be a week long and that, contrary to an assertion by Trump in the letter, there was no planned stop in Egypt.

But none of this was the point of Trump’s letter. He wasn’t concerned about Pelosi being gone for a week or where she was going. He wasn’t clipping her wings — the Democrats' collective wings — because he was worried about the shutdown. He did it for the same reason he’s done a lot of aggressive, unusual things that he’s done since declaring his candidacy in 2015.

He did it to throw a punch at his opponents.

Trump’s candidacy and his presidency are largely predicated on being the guy who picks the fights that commentators in conservative media say should be picked. The appeal of “owning the libs” — smacking down liberal political opponents or, more broadly, the elitists with whom the liberal population is believed to overlap — has enormous traction in some circles, including in much of Trump’s base. During the Republican primaries, he was the guy willing to bash George W. Bush. He was the guy willing to disparage Jeb Bush as out of touch. He was the guy willing to say the things about immigration that you would otherwise only hear from Laura Ingraham or on Breitbart News. His politics were born of that environment, born of immersion in Fox News in particular, and his political approach — unmoored by existing relationships on Capitol Hill — reflected it.

It was an enormously helpful part of his general-election bid, too. His disparagements of Hillary Clinton were unusually nasty and virulent, the sorts of things that guys sitting on their couches would yell at the TV when Sean Hannity mentioned Clinton in a segment. Clinton’s wealth was suspect in a way that his own wasn’t because her wealth was the wealth of the elite snobs who believe in climate change and in telling you what to do. She, ironically, was seen as the wealthy establishment and Trump as the guy who made good in the lottery, despite those roles being largely reversed in reality. Clinton was the elite, the lib, and every time Trump threw a punch in her direction, few Republicans were going to object. Trump ran against Clinton in very personal terms and it worked. Republicans who didn’t really love him were reminded of how much they hated Clinton — and they pulled the lever for Trump.

Trump does things because they will annoy Democrats, and many people love it. His tweets of disparagement, however juvenile, are celebrated among many of his supporters. His Twitter reference to Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) in which he replaced the two F’s with two T’s? Hilarious. That Schiff was on that bus that got turned around Thursday was not lost on members of Trump’s base.

Obviously Trump’s letter to Pelosi was retributive. Obviously is was meant to frustrate her. But it is of a piece with his overall approach to his political opponents.

Consider the reaction of Erick Erickson, a conservative commentator whose relationship with Trump’s presidency has run more cold than hot. His reaction to Trump’s letter to Pelosi came in a blog post that consisted of a headline, a picture and three sentences. The headline was “This Letter From Trump to Pelosi May Be the Greatest Letter of His Presidency.” The third sentence was “His letter is hilarious.” The image was a large, laughing face.

This is how Trump does politics. He may not do everything that his base would wish, but he at least fights against the people they hate. That’s often good enough, as it was for Erickson on Thursday.

The New York Times' Patricia Mazzei went to Florida this month to talk to residents about the shutdown. There she spoke to Crystal Minton, who had voted for Trump in 2016. She was now recovering from a hurricane and working without pay at a federal prison facility. She was understandably frustrated.

“I voted for him, and he’s the one who’s doing this,” she told Mazzei. “I thought he was going to do good things. He’s not hurting the people he needs to be hurting.”

The people he needs to be hurting, no doubt, are people like Pelosi.</s>The Department of Homeland Security and Secret Service have been impacted by the government shutdown, too.

Citing safety concerns, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has suggested that President Donald Trump postpone his State of the Union address to the nation until the government shutdown ends.

That’s because the Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security have been without funding for almost four weeks.

According to the Associated Press, Pelosi’s letter was made public after being delivered to the White House.

“On Jan. 3, it was my privilege as Speaker to invite you to deliver the State of the Union address on Jan. 29. The Constitution calls for the President to ‘from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union.'” Pelosi stated in a letter sent to Trump.

Pelosi noted that televised State of the Union addresses before Congress haven’t always been the norm, and especially during a government shutdown.

“During the 19th Century and up until the presidency of Woodrow Wilson, these annual state of the union message were delivered to Congress in writing. And since the start of modern budgeting in Fiscal Year 1977, a State of the Union address has never been delivered during a government shutdown,” she wrote.

In September 2018, U.S. Secretary Nielsen designated State of the Union addresses as National Special Security Events, meaning they would need “the full resources of the federal government” to make sure the event and all participants are secure.

“The extraordinary demands presented by NSSEs require weeks of detailed planning with dozens of agencies working together to prepare for the safety of all participants,” Pelosi wrote. “The U.S. Secret Service was designated as the lead federal agency responsible for coordinating, planning, exercising and implementing security for National Special Security Events.”

Pelosi pointed out that since the U.S. Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security haven’t been funded for 26 days and have been “hamstrung by furloughs.”

“Sadly, given the security concerns and unless government re-opens this week, I suggest that we work together to determine another suitable date after the government has re-opened,” she wrote.

Pelosi did suggest that the president consider delivering his State of the Union address in writing to Congress on Jan. 29 as presidents of the past used to do.

As of Wednesday morning, the White House has not responded to Pelosi’s letter.

The Associated Press also reported that Congressional members intend to skip the upcoming planned recession if the government shutdown continues. At this point, neither side seems to be interested in backing down.</s>GOP dismiss suggestion that State of Union be postponed

WASHINGTON (AP) — A grand Washington ritual became a potential casualty of the partial government shutdown as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi asked President Donald Trump to postpone his Jan. 29 State of the Union speech. She cited concerns about whether the hobbled government can provide adequate security, but Republicans cast her move as a ploy to deny Trump the stage.

In a letter to Trump, Pelosi said that with both the Secret Service and the Homeland Security Department entangled in the shutdown, the president should speak to Congress another time or he should deliver the address in writing.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen denied anyone's safety is compromised, saying Wednesday that both agencies "are fully prepared to support and secure the State of the Union."

Trump did not immediately respond to the request and the White House, thrown off guard by the move, had yet to offer any official response hours later. But GOP allies accused Pelosi of playing politics, with Republican Rep. Steve Scalise tweeting that Democrats are "only interested in obstructing @realDonaldTrump, not governing."

Pelosi, who issued the customary invitation to Trump weeks ago, hit the president in a vulnerable place, as he delights in taking his message to the public and has been preparing for the address for weeks.

The uncertainty surrounding the speech also underscored the unraveling of ceremonial norms and niceties in Trump's Washington, with the shutdown in its fourth week, the White House and Democrats in a stalemate and the impasse draining the finances of hundreds of thousands of federal employees.

Pelosi left unclear what would happen if Trump insisted on coming despite the welcome mat being pulled away. It takes a joint resolution of the House and Congress to extend the official invitation and set the stage.

"We'll have to have a security evaluation, but that would mean diverting resources," she told reporters when asked how she would respond if Trump still intended to come. "I don't know how that could happen."

Pressure on Trump intensified on the 26th day of the shutdown, as lawmakers from both parties scrambled for solutions. At the White House, Trump met a bipartisan group of lawmakers, as well as a group of Republican senators, but progress appeared elusive.

While his own advisers said the shutdown was proving a greater drag on the economy than expected, Trump showed no signs of backing off a fight that he views as vital for his core supporters.

On Wednesday, Trump signed legislation into law affirming that the roughly 800,000 federal workers who have been going without pay will ultimately be compensated for their lost wages. That was the practice in the past.

As he weighs a response to Pelosi, Trump could not go forward with a State of the Union address in Congress without her blessing. Donald Ritchie, former historian of the Senate, said that anytime a president comes to speak, it must be at the request of Congress. Trump could opt to deliver a speech somewhere else, like the Oval Office, but it would not have the same ritualistic heft.

Democratic leaders did not ask the Secret Service if the agency would be able to secure the State of the Union event before sending the letter, according to a senior Homeland Security official, who was not authorized to speak publicly. Pelosi's office said Congress is already familiar with the percentage of Secret Service and Homeland Security employees who have been furloughed and working without pay.

The Secret Service starts preparing for events like these months in advance.

Lawmakers struggled to find a way out of the shutdown Wednesday. Trump is demanding $5.7 billion to build a wall along the Mexican border that he says is needed on humanitarian and security grounds. But Pelosi is refusing money for the wall she views as ineffective and immoral and Democrats say they will discuss border security once the government has reopened.

Sen. Lindsay Graham, a South Carolina Republican who has been working on bipartisan strategies, declared glumly: "I am running out of ideas."

Trump met a bipartisan group of lawmakers Wednesday that included seven Democrats. Two people who attended the White House meeting agreed it was "productive," but could not say to what extent Trump was listening or moved by the conversation.

The people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the event candidly, said it seemed at some points as if people were talking past each other. Lawmakers talked about the shutdown's effect on their constituents and advocated for "border security." Trump and others on-and-off used the term "wall." It was not clear if progress had been made, by those accounts.

Meanwhile a group of Republican senators headed to the White House later Wednesday.

Many Republicans were unwilling to sign on to a letter led by Graham and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., to re-open the government for three weeks while talks continue.

"Does that help the president or does that hurt the president?" asked Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., among those going to the White House. He has not signed the letter. "If the president saw it as a way to be conciliatory, if he thought it would help, then perhaps it's a good idea," he said. "If it's just seen as a weakening of his position, then he probably wouldn't do it."

While Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said she has signed, others said GOP support was lacking. "They're a little short on the R side," said Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., another leader of the effort.

The House and Senate announced they are canceling next week's planned recess if shutdown continues, which seemed likely. Some Republicans expressed concerns over the impact of the shutdown and who was getting blamed.

Said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc.:"Right now, are you seeing any pressure on Democrats? I think Republicans are getting the lion's share of the pressure."

He added: "The president accepted the blame so people are happy to give it to him."

For AP's complete coverage of the U.S. government shutdown: https://apnews.com/GovernmentShutdown

Associated Press writers Chris Rugaber, Darlene Superville, Matthew Daly, Jonathan Lemire, Alan Fram, Colleen Long, Andrew Taylor, Laurie Kellman, Elana Schor and Ken Sweet contributed to this report</s>WASHINGTON—House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) asked President Trump on Wednesday to delay his State of the Union address to Congress until the government is reopened, citing security concerns.

It is custom for the speaker of the House to formally invite the president to give a State of the Union speech to a joint session of Congress at the beginning of the year. That address is scheduled for Jan. 29.</s>House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has written President Trump to suggest that he postpone his State of the Union address, citing her “security concerns” over the ability of the Secret Service and Department of Homeland Security to protect government officials during the shutdown.

With all due respect, that is fake news.

Pelosi isn’t worried about security. She invited the president to deliver the State of the Union on Jan. 3, 13 days after the partial government shutdown began. She did not ask the Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service before writing the president whether they had concerns about their ability to provide security. Indeed, Politico reports that a planning meeting with the Secret Service was scheduled for the day after Pelosi sent her letter, and subsequently canceled. If Pelosi had bothered to ask, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen would have told her exactly what she said Wednesday on Twitter: “The Department of Homeland Security and the US Secret Service are fully prepared to support and secure the State of the Union.”

Pelosi is using her faux security concerns as a pretext to do something unprecedented and outrageous: deny a president of the United States the opportunity to come to Congress and deliver his State of the Union address. Never in the history of our Republic has the House speaker invited, and then disinvited, a sitting president from addressing a joint session of Congress. Yet all those who constantly decry Trump for shattering of presidential norms seem to be perfectly fine when Pelosi is doing the norm shattering — and lying about why she is doing it.

To the contrary, some have praised this is as a power move on Pelosi’s part. No, it’s not. Pelosi understands full well the power of a State of the Union address. Trump’s first two addresses of a joint session drew 48 million and 46 million television viewers, respectively (plus millions more online). She knows that, if anything, the drama of Trump addressing Congress in the midst of the shutdown would likely increase interest. Trump has now twice demonstrated that he can use the venue effectively. So, Pelosi wants to stop him from speaking from the rostrum of the House of Representatives directly to tens of millions of Americans and calling her out for her refusal to compromise.

If she follows through on this threat, it could backfire. Right now, Democrats are brimming with confidence because polls show that a majority of Americans blame Trump for the shutdown. But according to a recent Hill-HarrisX poll, 70 percent of Americans want both sides to compromise, including 61 percent of Republicans and 76 percent of Democrats. Right now, Trump is the only one talking compromise, while Democrats are demanding unilateral surrender. A few weeks ago, Trump sent Vice President Pence to Capitol Hill with an offer that cut his wall request from $5.7 billion to $2.5 billion. Pelosi said she would be willing to give him “one dollar.” She probably thought it was funny. But to millions of voters, it came across as cocky and insensitive to the hundreds of thousands of federal workers affected by the shutdown.

Then, to add insult to injury, Democratic lawmakers took a junket to Puerto Rico on the very day that federal workers stop receiving their paychecks. They had time to sun themselves on the beach at an exclusive resort with more than 100 lobbyists and executives and hang out with the cast of “Hamilton,” but they could not be bothered to accept Trump’s invitation to meet with him at the White House on Tuesday to find a way out of the crisis.

And now Pelosi is threatening to cancel the State of the Union address — a move that will be seen by many Americans as petty and vindictive. If Democrats continue with this cavalier attitude and refusal to negotiate, eventually public opinion will turn against them.

Trump should tell Pelosi that, while he appreciates her concerns, the Secret Service has assured him that they can handle security and that he plans to deliver his address in person, as scheduled. Let her withdraw the invitation. If she does, it will be a turning point in our nation’s history — a moment when the last vestiges of comity in Washington were destroyed. It may also be the moment when Americans finally realized that Pelosi cares more about hurting Trump than she does about finding a compromise solution and doing what is best for the country.

Read more from Marc Thiessen’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — Shutdown pressure on President Donald Trump mounted Wednesday as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called on him to delay his State of the Union address and his own economists acknowledged the prolonged standoff was having a greater economic drag than previously thought.

In a letter to Trump, Pelosi cited security concerns, noting that both the Secret Service and the Homeland Security Department are affected by the partial government shutdown, now it its fourth week. She added that unless the government reopens this week, they should find another date or Trump should deliver the address in writing.

The White House did not immediately respond to the high-stakes move on the 26th day of the shutdown, as Trump and Democrats are at an impasse over Trump's demands for $5.7 billion to build a wall along the Mexican border.

Pelosi is refusing money for the wall she views as ineffective and immoral; Democrats say they will discuss border security once the government has reopened.

The White House planned further meetings with rank-and-file lawmakers Wednesday, though few saw those sessions as likely to budge either side. Administration officials sought to project confidence even as Trump's economists indicated the shutdown was having a greater impact than previously predicted.

Kevin Hassett, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said Tuesday the shutdown is slowing growth more than predicted.

An economic shift could rattle Trump, who has tied his political fortunes to the stock market and repeatedly stressed economic gains as evidence that his tax-cut package and deregulation efforts are succeeding. Economic optimism had already cooled somewhat as Trump's trade fight with China shook the markets.

Hassett told reporters the White House is doubling its estimate of the strain on the economy of the shutdown, and now calculates that it is slowing growth by about 0.1 percentage points a week.

With the shutdown in its fourth week, that suggests the economy has lost nearly a half-percentage point of growth so far, though some of that occurred at the end of last year and some in the first quarter of this year. Hassett said the economy should get a boost when the government re-opens.

Previous White House estimates of the impact did not fully take into account the effect on people who work for private companies that contract with the government to provide services, Hassett said.

While the hit to the overall economy so far remains slight, economists foresee real damage if the shutdown drags into February or beyond.

Roughly 1 million government employees and contractors aren't being paid. Travel plans are compromised by shuttered federal parks and airport delays. Some Americans trying to start small businesses face delays in obtaining the required tax identification number from the IRS.

"I know there has been some impact, but at the same time we're focused on the long term economic principles the president has laid out," she said.

The House and Senate said they will cancel a recess later this week if the shutdown continues, which seemed likely.

The president, on a conference call with supporters Tuesday, showed no signs of backing down.

"We're going to stay out for a long time, if we have to," Trump said. He also suggested the partial shutdown, which has clogged airport security lines and shuttered federal agencies, was going smoothly.

Behind the scenes, though, the administration and its allies on Capitol Hill are warily eyeing the next payday. They hope to reach a resolution before a Tuesday deadline, when they'll need to prepare the next round of paychecks for workers who have been seeing zeros on their pay slips.

Some in the Senate are pushing to support a short-term bill that would re-open the government for three weeks to allow time for negotiations on border security.

While Trump rejected the idea earlier this week, Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Chris Coons of Delaware are organizing a bipartisan letter asking him to reconsider.

The letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, states that the senators will make "our best efforts" to address the Trump administration's request for money to address security and humanitarian issues at the border. It is not clear how many senators have signed on.

Trump, who a week ago seemed intent on declaring a national emergency in order to build the wall, has turned his attention back to Congress as polling suggests he is taking much of the blame for the standoff. On Tuesday, the White House had 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. But none of the House Democrats took Trump up on the offer. Trump ended up lunching with a selection of lesser-known House Republicans. For AP's complete coverage of the U.S. government shutdown: https://apnews.com/GovernmentShutdown Associated Press writers Chris Rugaber, Darlene Superville, Matthew Daly, Jonathan Lemire, Alan Fram, Andrew Taylor, Laurie Kellman, Elana Schor and Ken Sweet contributed to this report
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi suggests that President Trump's State of the Union address scheduled for January 29 be delayed or use a drastically modified format due to security concerns related to the ongoing government shutdown.