The U.S. Senate reconvened Monday afternoon for a possible funding bill as the federal government shutdown moved one day closer to a record 35 days, set in 2019.

Under former President Joe Biden, Senate Democrats tried but failed to abolish the filibuster. The party encountered opposition from centrist Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona — both of whom later switched their affiliations to independent — when they attempted the gambit.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) on Monday said he is “optimistic” a deal to end the over four-week long shutdown could be reached by the end of this week. Both Democrats and Republicans are looking for an off-ramp as the government’s closure inches toward the longest in U.

The top two Republicans in Congress are showing no interest in taking the unprecedented step of ending the legislative filibuster, just hours after President Donald Trump made a fresh demand for the Senate to do so to end the government shutdown.

Senate Republicans are resisting his demand to end the long-standing filibuster rule in order to end the government shutdown.

Senate Republicans nixed an attempt by Democrats to fully fund Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits on Monday after those funds dried up over the weekend amid the government shutdown.

In an interview with NBC News after a packed event, Platner bashed "establishment politics" and said he's still more electable than Democratic rival Janet Mills.

Setti Warren, the former mayor of Newton who also ran for governor in Massachusetts and the U.S. Senate, died unexpectedly at his home.