The building strain on lawmakers to end the impasse was exemplified by the nation's largest federal employee union calling on Congress to immediately pass a funding bill and end the shutdown.

The Senate failed for a 13th time to advance a GOP funding bill that would end the government shutdown, now on Day 28. Follow live updates here.

Sen. Jeff Merkley has been speaking for more than 15 hours, as of Wednesday morning, warning abut the "grave threat" posed by Donald Trump to American democracy. "I’ve come to the Senate floor tonight to ring the alarm bells.

The Senate again voted down the House-passed funding bill to reopen the federal government Wednesday. The 12th vote on the legislation failed 54-46. It followed a 22-hour speech from Sen. Jeff

The government shutdown stretched into Day 24 on Friday as the Senate failed to advance a measure to pay some federal workers.

He ended his speech at 5 p.m. It lasted 22 hours and 36 minutes, falling short of fellow Democratic Sen. Cory Booker's record of 25 hours and 5 minutes earlier this year. But he did beat the record for the longest floor speech given by a senator from Oregon. In 1953, independent Sen. Wayne Morse set that record at 22 hours and 26 minutes.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) took to the Senate floor Tuesday evening in protest of President Trump’s policies and has been speaking for more than 17 hours — with a handful of other Democrats