Federal government officially shut down

WASHINGTON (NBC, KYMA) - The government shutdown is now officially underway.

The shutdown began at midnight Wednesday after Democratic and Republican leaders failed to agree on even a short-term deal to keep the government fully funded past the current fiscal year.

The 55-45 vote fell short of the 60 needed to pass and kept the midnight shutdown deadline.

It is unclear how long the shutdown will last, or how widespread its impacts will be.

Earlier, the senate also rejected a democratic alternative bill that would have averted a shutdown.

That measure would have funded the government through October 31, and included an extension of affordable care act subsidies and money to offset medicaid cuts from President Donald Trump's "big beautiful bill."

The Senate is expected to be in session Wednesday, when it will vote again on motions related to these same stopgap funding measures, but little is expected to have changed by then.

It is the first government shutdown since 2018 when the government partially shuttered for about five weeks amid disputes over funding Trump's proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall.