The Senate tabled -- or killed -- the House of Representatives' call for a House-Senate conference to negotiate their way out of the federal government shutdown.
The Senate reconvened at 9:30, and the Democratic-led chamber rejected the House's overture on a party-line 54-46 vote.
Before the government's partial closing at midnight, the Republican-led House of Representatives agreed to a conference, or negotiating committee, to discuss government funding. But the House bill would make changes in the Affordable Care Act, and Democrats won't buy that. So the next move is the Senate's, where Democrats have 54 of the 100 seats. Soon after the Senate convenes this morning, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is expected to seek to table, or effectively kill, the House idea. And then things are back to square one.