A brief government shutdown is announced before Christmas as the Senate works to advance the House bill.

A partial government shutdown began at 12:01 a.m. Saturday morning after Congress failed to pass a stopgap spending measure before the deadline and send it to President Biden's desk.

However, the Senate is actively working on amendment votes and other considerations in order to pass the measure to Biden. The interim bill is expected to pass the Senate in the coming hours.

The partial closure comes just days before Christmas and New Year.

From Thursday, the US national debt was at $36,167,604,149,955.61 and continued to climb rapidly.

A partial government shutdown began at 12:01 a.m. Saturday morning after Congress failed to pass a stopgap spending measure before the deadline. (Photo by Countess Jemal/Getty Images)

During a partial government shutdown, federal agencies and nonessential services are shut down, but some functions considered “essential” will continue. Some national security functions, such as border patrol, law enforcement, and disaster response, will remain active during the shutdown.

However, with the Senate expected to advance the bill imminently, the disruption to the functioning of government will be minimal, if at all noticeable.

An initial agreement on a short-term spending bill was released earlier in the week, totaling 1,547 pages and including a number of policy and disaster aid provisions.

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Musk's public criticism of the bill preceded Trump's statement. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

But shortly after its release, billionaire Elon Musk and other conservative critics publicly criticized the measure, ultimately leading to its condemnation by President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance.

The initial spending measure would have extended government funding levels for fiscal 2024 until March 14 and provide more than $100 billion in disaster aid to people affected by storms Helene and Milton in the South -eastern United States earlier this year. The bill also contained a $10 billion provision for economic aid to farmers.

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The size of the bill, along with several of its other provisions, including a cost-of-living increase for lawmakers, has drawn public backlash, from Elon Musk and others.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, co-chair of the new Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE), arrives on Capitol Hill with his son December 5, 2024, in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

After going back to the drawing board, House Republicans emerged Thursday with a new proposal. The revised measure would have extended current funding levels by three months and included a suspension of the debt ceiling for two years, in line with Trump's request.

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Additionally, it provided economic aid to farmers and about $110 billion in disaster aid.

But the bill failed Thursday night in the House as Democrats united against it and a sizable group of Republicans also chose to oppose it.

As of Friday morning, there appeared to be no agreement between Democrats and Republicans in Congress to work together on a new bill. In fact, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., have said the government will enter a partial shutdown at midnight if Republicans did not revert to the original stopgap bill.

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Representative Chip Roy speaks to the media after the House of Representatives failed to pass a government funding bill at the U.S. Capitol on December 19, 2024 in Washington, DC (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

“I'm willing to stay here until Christmas because we're not going to let Elon Musk run the government,” Murray said in a statement.

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The House managed to pass a third version of the spending bill on Friday. It was similar to the second version, including both economic aid for farmers and disaster aid, but did not feature the debt ceiling suspension that Trump had insisted on.

The bill received broad bipartisan support in the House and a green light from Biden, with the White House saying he would support it. Even Schumer released a statement after the House passed it, saying he was “confident” the bill would pass the Senate.