All eyes were on the Senate Friday afternoon as an effort to vote on a bill to fund President Donald Trump’s border wall teetered on the edge.

J. Scott Applewhite / AP</s>Senate adjourns without action to end partial government shutdown as talks drag on between White House, Congress

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate adjourns without action to end partial government shutdown as talks drag on between White House, Congress.</s>Shutdown to stretch until at least Thursday as Senate adjourns with no budget deal</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate adjourns without action to end partial government shutdown as talks drag on between White House, Congress.</s>House adjourns without deal on spending, virtually guaranteeing partial government shutdown will begin at midnight

WASHINGTON (AP) — House adjourns without deal on spending, virtually guaranteeing partial government shutdown will begin at midnight.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — House adjourns without deal on spending, virtually guaranteeing partial government shutdown will begin at midnight.</s>WASHINGTON, D.C. - America is in the midst of a partial government shutdown in the middle of holiday season, because a funding bill hasn’t passed.

President Donald Trump wants Democrats in the Senate to approve his $5.7 billion demand for U.S.-Mexico border wall money. However, Democrats are unwilling to endorse it.

Wondering what happens during a partial shutdown? Here’s what you should know.

[RELATED: Partial government shutdown in effect after lawmakers fail to reach deal]

A government shutdown happens when Congress does not pass funding bills or the president fails to sign them before the previous appropriations run out.

However, the nation currently is headed toward a partial shutdown since Congress has already funded about 75 percent of the federal government through September 2019.

How long would the shutdown last?

If the funding bill doesn’t pass, the shutdown would start Saturday. It would last until both the House and Senate come to an agreement, and the president signs it.

What departments would be impacted?

Nine out of 15 federal departments will close or reduce operations, according to a fact sheet released by the Democratic staff of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Here’s a list:

What happens to federal employees?

More than 420,000 government workers are expected to work without pay if a partial shutdown occurs, according to the fact sheet.

That would include more than 41,000 federal law enforcement and correctional officers, 88 percent of employees at the Department of Homeland Security and thousands of Customs and Border Protection agents and customs officers.

More than 380,000 federal employees would be placed on furlough, or sent home without pay.

That would include the majority of the staff at NASA, the National Park Service and the Department of Housing and Urban Development as well as about 52,000 IRS workers.</s>WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has adjourned without a deal on spending, an hour after the House ended its session, guaranteeing a partial government shutdown will begin at midnight Friday.

Senators expect to return at noon Saturday as talks continue.

Vice President Mike Pence and other White House officials were on Capitol Hill late Friday trying to broker a compromise as President Donald Trump pushes for $5 billion in border wall funding, a proposal Democrats staunchly oppose.

Trump says the government is “totally prepared for a very long shutdown” and just last week said that he’d “own” the partial shutdown.

Without a deal, funding for about 25 percent of the government expires at midnight.

Nine Cabinet-level departments and dozens of agencies, including the departments of Homeland Security, Transportation, Interior, Agriculture, State and Justice, will be affected by the shutdown.</s>On Friday, the federal government will partially shut down, unless Congress passes last-minute funding measures. Many Americans worry the Christmastime shutdown will be as devastating as a stocking full of coal — but the shutdown might not be so bad after all.

The U.S. government has shut down numerous times over the past 50 years, and the impact has been as small as the “Whos” in “Whoville.” In fact, since 1976, there have been 19 government shutdowns, and the longest shutdown (December 1995) only lasted 21 days.

Of course, according to many in the mainstream media, a government shutdown, like the Grinch, will bring utter devastation to the country (and ruin Christmas). History has clearly shown, however, that this isn’t the case.

Here are some of the most common myths about what will happen if the government shuts down.

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There is simply no truth to this claim. Social Security, like Medicare, is a mandatory spending program, which means that Social Security payments would be 100 percent unaffected by a partial government shutdown. All 62 million Americans receiving Social Security benefits will still get their checks in the mail, regardless of what happens with Congress and President Donald Trump.

This has been the case for literally every single government shutdown in modern history.

MYTH: All federal agencies will be affected.

Because Congress has already allocated funds for three-fourths of the federal discretionary budget for 2019, the pending partial shutdown would only impact a limited number of government services. Agencies that would be affected include those under the Departments of Homeland Security, State, and Treasury — and a partial shutdown would not cut all funding for these agencies, either. Most agencies have already been funded and will not be impacted by the shutdown. This includes the Departments of Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, and Labor, among others.

MYTH: All government employees will not be paid.

There are two million federal employees in the United States, not including the U.S. military. About 1.2 million employees work at agencies that have been fully funded for 2019, which means these 1.2 million government workers have nothing to worry about if the pending partial shutdown takes place. Of the remaining 800,000 Americans employed by the national government, only about 350,000 are considered “non-essential” and could be furloughed in the event of a government shutdown. Although that may seem dire to some, the furlough often ends up being more like a paid vacation.

In the past, Congress has passed legislation to retroactively compensate all federal employees that were furloughed during shutdowns.

MYTH: The United States would default on its debt payments.

The federal shutdown only impacts discretionary spending, not interest payments on behalf of the U.S. government to foreign and domestic debtholders. The U.S. government would only default on its debt payments if the debt ceiling was not raised to accommodate the national debt. Currently, the debt ceiling has been suspended until March 1, 2019. In essence, federal spending cannot be impeded until that date.

MYTH: National parks and monuments will be closed.

Unless the Trump administration takes a page out of the Obama administration’s government-shutdown playbook and unnecessarily closes national parks and monuments to the public, odds are that these national treasures will stay open. The only caveat is that the visitor centers might not be open and park rangers might not be around to help visitors.

The pending government shutdown might not seem all that bad once you know the facts, but the truth is that a shutdown shouldn’t happen at all. The shutdown is a symptom of a much larger problem: a broken federal budgeting system. Until that problem is fixed, expect more government shutdown myths in the future.

Chris Talgo is an editor at The Heartland Institute. Emma Kaden is an intern at The Heartland Institute.

The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.</s>LOS ANGELES (CBSLA/CBS News) – The government officially entered a partial government shutdown at midnight Saturday. The House and Senate failed to come to agreement on President Trump’s $5 billion border wall, and Mr. Trump declared last week he’d be “proud” to shut down the government to get it.

On Wednesday, it seemed possible he’d sign a bill that didn’t explicitly fund his wall and find money for it elsewhere, but that idea evaporated Thursday under pressure from conservative Republicans, who advised him that it would look like he was caving on his campaign promise to erect the wall.

Democrats in Congress don’t want to spend more than $1.6 billion on border security. The Senate initially passed a bill without the wall funding. But Republicans in the House passed a stopgap bill Thursday night that inserted $5 billion for the wall, a move that means the Senate will have to vote again on the measure. It has no chance of passage, since the bill needs 60 votes to pass, and there is no Democrat who will support the wall funding.

Meanwhile, the president was expected to head to Mar-a-Lago for his more than two-week holiday vacation, but he stayed in Washington while First Lady Melania Trump and their 12-year-old son Barron went without him.

This is the third shutdown under Mr. Trump’s presidency, following two very brief shutdowns over the span of one month earlier this year. Before Mr. Trump took office, no shutdown had occurred when one party controlled the House, Senate and White House since the 1970s, when the federal government shut down under Jimmy Carter.

When did the government shutdown start

This is a partial government shutdown. A number of departments and agencies are funded through September 2019, thanks to previously passed appropriations bills. Funding that expires after Dec. 21 covers the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department, the State Department, the Interior Department, the Departure of Agriculture and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, among some other federal entities.

In the event of a shutdown, the Office of Management and Budget — the office still run by incoming acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney — issues guidance to each agency and each agency would develop its own shutdown plan. In a shutdown, federal agencies must halt all “non-essential” discretionary work and so-called non-essential employees must stay home until new funding legislation is signed into law.

The shutdown will last until both the House and Senate pass a funding bill, and the president signs it.
• The U.S. Postal Service would still operate, and mail would be delivered as usual.
• Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents would still work, and air travel would continue virtually unaffected. Holiday travel could continue as planned.
• Social Security checks would be mailed as planned. Social Security doesn’t fall under one of the affected departments anyways, but even if it did, those checks would be unaffected.
• Special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation would go on unimpeded.
• Customs and Border Patrol agents at the border, and U.S. troops deployed to the border, would still work as usual. They just wouldn’t get paid at the time.
• The Smithsonian announced that its museum and the National Zoo will remain open through Jan. 1 by using prior-year funds.

What government services will stop during the shutdown

Nine of the 15 federal departments as well as dozens of agencies will close or reduce operations, according to Democrats on the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations.
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture would close down state and local farm service centers across the country, according to Senate Committee on Appropriations report
• The Federal Housing Administration would see slowdowns in loan processing and approvals, and new loan applications may be halted altogether

The government services that could close
• The National Parks Service is not fully closing down, but its services will be pared back. National Park Service Chief Spokesperson Jeremy Barnum said in a statement: “In the event of a government shutdown national parks will remain as accessible as possible while still following all applicable laws and procedures. For example, this means that roads that have already been open will remain open (think snow removal) and vault toilets (wilderness type restrooms) will remain open. However, services that require staffing and maintenance such as campgrounds and full service restrooms, will not be operating.”
• Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey said that the Grand Canyon will remain open regardless of a government shutdown. “We have a plan in place and we’re ready to go. If you have plans to visit the Grand Canyon over the weekend, keep ’em,” he said.
• NORAD announced that if a government shutdown occurs, the annual NORAD Tracks Santa tradition will continue. “Military personnel who conduct NORAD Tracks Santa are supported by approximately 1,500 volunteers who make the program possible each and every year,” NORAD said in a statement.

What happens to federal employees during shutdown

More than 420,000 federal employees would have to go to work without pay, according to the Senate Appropriations Committee. The committee estimates that includes:
• More than 41,000 law enforcement and correctional officers
• Up to 88 percent of Department of Homeland Security employees

On top of that, more than 380,000 federal employees would be furloughed — meaning, sent home without pay — the committee estimates. That includes:
• Roughly 86 percent of the Department of Commerce staff

Since it’s unclear how long a shutdown would last, if one does indeed occur, it’s unclear what kind of disruption there would be in federal employee paychecks. During the most recent shutdown in January 2018, the three-day shutdown over the weekend wasn’t quite long enough to delay paychecks.

Congress isn’t required to pay back pay to furloughed employees, but historically, they have.

“Our members are asking how they are supposed to pay for rent, food, and gas if they are required to work without a paycheck,” David Cox, the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a statement. “The holiday season makes these inquiries especially heart-wrenching.”

Ironically, a government shutdown, according to the Center for a Responsible Federal Budget, tends to cost more than keeping the government open does. Creating contingency plans costs resources, uncollected fees are lost, and furloughed employees typically get back pay anyways.

Without approved funding legislation, there is no timeline for a shutdown.

The longest shutdown occurred during President Bill Clinton’s time in office, also over the holidays – a 21-day shutdown from Dec. 15, 1995, to Jan. 6, 1996.

In the event of a shutdown, it’s quite possible the issue wouldn’t be resolved until the new Congress begins Jan. 3. Democrats will take control of the House then.

But as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said last week, “I’m just sort of hoping for a Christmas miracle here.”
The U.S. Congress adjourns for the night before reaching a new budget agreement, starting a partial federal government shutdown that began the next day at 12:00 AM EST (05:00 UTC).