US government shutdown: Trump's plan to end closure fails as Senate considers interim deal

Good morning and welcome to The Independent's live coverage of the 34th day of the US federal government shutdown.

US senators are to vote on two competing bills today in a bid to end the deadlock over Donald Trump's border wall.

But neither proposal is likely to bring reprieve for the 800,000 public workers who have gone without pay for more than a month. Each needs 60 votes to advance in the Senate, which is under 53-47 Republican control. 

Donald Trump is to delay his State of the Union speech until after the shutdown is over, he confirmed late last night.

Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi had urged him to rearrange the address, he had been due to deliver to congress next Tuesday, as the law enforcement agencies tasked with protecting Capitol Hill are affected by the shutdown.

The president is awake in and, as is his habit, has dispatched a few early-morning tweets. Some of the 800,000 federal government workers who haven't been paid in a month might have something to say about this one:

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell's decision to allow a vote on a Democratic proposal to end the shutdown is a change in tack from the Republican, who had previously blocked any vote on a bill that does not have the president's support.

The bill does not have that - it would fund the government for three weeks without providing the $5.7bn (£4.4bn) that Trump is demanding for a US-Mexico border wall.

The proposal's prospects looked dim. The Democratic-controlled US House of Representatives has passed similar bills but Trump has rejected legislation that does not include the wall funding.

But the mere fact that McConnell is willing to allow for a vote suggests he may be trying to persuade both parties to compromise.

As well as the Democratic bill, senators will also vote on Trump's proposal of extending protections to "dreamers" - hundreds of thousands of young migrants brought to the US illegally as children - in exchange for border wall funding.

Democrats have dismissed the offer, saying they would not negotiate on border security before reopening the government and would not trade a temporary extension of the immigrants' protections in return for a permanent border wall they have called ineffective, costly and immoral.

The bill is broadly supported by Republicans, but they are unlikely to have enough votes to get it through.

"It's hard to imagine 60 votes developing for either one," said Roy Blunt, Republican senator for Missouri.

One possible compromise which emerged from House Democrats this week was the idea of giving Trump the money he demands for security along the Mexican border, but stipulating it could not be used to build a physical wall.

James Clyburn, the third most senior House Democrat, suggested they could hand the president $5.7bn for a high-tech "smart wall" - comprised of technological tools such as drones, X-rays and sensors, as well as more border patrol agents.

"These are the types of things that we are going to be putting forward," he told reporters.

Republican Representative Tom Cole, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said the proposal could help.

“Any movement, any discussion is helpful,” Cole said. “We’ve got to get past this wall-or-no-wall debate.”

Away from the shutdown, Donald Trump has been accused by the UK's counterterror police chief of handing "a propaganda victory" to Isis by announcing the withdrawal of US troops from Syria.

My colleague Lizzie Dearden has the full story:

The majority of Americans blame Donald Trump for the government shutdown, according to a new poll.

Sixty per cent of US adults say the president bears a great deal of responsibility for the prolonged deadlock, found the Associated Press-NORC Centre for Public Affairs Research. 

Thirty-one per cent place the same amount of blame on congressional Democrats, while 36 per cent believe Republicans are responsibility.

Some 65 per cent of Americans believe the shutdown, which entered its 34th day today, is a major problem for their country.

The poll is the latest sign that the shutdown could damage the president, who in the early stages of the deadlock declared he was willing to keep government departments closed for "months or even years".

Donald Trump’s Republican proposal will go to a vote today and is expected to fail, as it is not expected to receive any support. 

The Senate is then expected to hold another vote on a Democratic proposal that would reopen the government and table negotiations on border wall funding and immigration until the federal agencies impacted by the nation’s longest shutdown are back up and running. 

Meanwhile, the president is tweeting his new slogan surrounding the issue: “BUILD THE WALL AND CRIME WILL FALL!” 

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association has released a frightening statement about the impact the government shutdown has had on airports and travel across the country.

“We cannot even calculate the level of risk currently at play, nor predict the point at which the entire system will break,” the statement read. “It is unprecedented.”