WASHINGTON (AP) — A partisan disagreement over health care and spending threatens to cause the first U.S. government shutdown in nearly seven years, as Democrats and Republicans in Congress remain deadlocked while thousands of federal workers face potential furlough or layoffs.

The government will shut down at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday if the Senate fails to pass a House bill that would extend federal funding for seven weeks to allow lawmakers to complete their work on annual spending bills. Senate Democrats have stated they won’t support it unless Republicans agree to an extension of expiring health care benefits, among other requirements. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans refuse to negotiate, insisting that it is a pared-down, “clean” bill that should be straightforward.

It’s unclear if either side will blink before the deadline.

“It’s now in the president’s hands,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer commented Monday following a meeting with Trump at the White House that seemed to show little progress. “He can prevent the shutdown if he persuades the Republican leaders to agree to our conditions.”

Vice President JD Vance, who was also part of the meeting, remarked afterwards, “I think we’re headed into a shutdown, because the Democrats won’t do the right thing.”

While stalemates over government funding are common in Washington, the current deadlock occurs as Democrats see a rare chance to leverage their power for policy achievements, and while their base is eager to confront Trump. Republicans, who hold a 53-47 Senate majority, will likely need at least eight Democrat votes to overcome a filibuster and pass the bill with 60 votes, especially since Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky is expected to oppose it.

No agreement at the White House

Trump has shown little willingness to consider the Democrats’ demands on health care, despite agreeing to join a meeting Monday with Schumer, D-N.Y., Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.

As he headed into the meeting, Trump made it clear he had no intention to negotiate on Democrats’ current terms.

“Their ideas are not very good ones,” Trump said.

It was Trump’s first meeting with all four leaders in Congress since retaking the White House for his second term, and he did more listening than talking, Jeffries told House Democrats at the Capitol afterward, according to a lawmaker who attended the private caucus meeting and insisted on anonymity to discuss it.

Schumer said after the closed-door meeting that they had “had candid, frank discussions” with Trump about health care. Vance also said Trump found several points of agreement on policy ideas.

Schumer said Trump “was not aware” of the potential for health insurance costs to skyrocket once the subsidies end Dec. 31.

But Trump did not appear to be ready for serious negotiations. Hours later, Trump posted a fake video of Schumer and Jeffries taken from footage of their real press conference outside of the White House after the meeting. In the altered video, a voiceover that sounds like Schumer’s voice makes fun of Democrats and Jeffries stands beside him with a cartoon sombrero and mustache. Mexican music plays in the background.

Jeffries posted in response that “Bigotry will get you nowhere.”

He added, “We are NOT backing down.”

Expiring health care subsidies

Democrats are pushing for an extension to Affordable Care Act tax credits that have boosted health insurance subsidies for millions of people since the COVID-19 pandemic. The credits, which are designed to expand coverage for low- and middle-income people, are set to expire at the end of the year.

“We are not going to support a partisan Republican spending bill that continues to gut the health care of everyday Americans,” Jeffries said.

Thune has pressed Democrats to vote for the funding bill and take up the debate on tax credits later. Some Republicans are open to extending the tax credits, but they want to place new limits on them.

“We’re willing to sit down and work with them on some of the issues they want to talk about,” Thune told reporters at the White House, adding, “But as of right now, this is a hijacking of the American people, and it’s the American people who are going to pay the price.”

A crucial, and unusual, vote for Democrats

Democrats are in an uncomfortable position for a party that has long denounced shutdowns as pointless and destructive, and it’s unclear how or when it would end. But party activists and voters have argued that Democrats need to do something to stand up to Trump.

Some groups called for Schumer’s resignation in March after he and nine other Democrats voted to break a filibuster and allow a Republican-led funding bill to advance to a final vote.

Schumer said he voted to keep the government open because a shutdown would have made things worse as Trump’s administration was slashing government jobs. He says things have changed since then, including the passage this summer of the massive GOP tax cut bill that reduced Medicaid.

Some of the Democrats who voted with Schumer in March to keep the government open were still holding out hope for a compromise. Michigan Sen. Gary Peters said Monday there’s still time before the early Wednesday deadline.

“A lot can happen in this place in a short period of time,” Peters said.

Shutdown preparations begin

Federal agencies were sending out contingency plans if funding lapses, including details on what offices would stay open and which employees would be furloughed. In its instructions to agencies, the White House has suggested that a shutdown could lead to broad layoffs across the government.

Trump’s budget director, Russ Vought, told reporters at the White House that a shutdown would be managed “appropriately, but it is something that can all be avoided” if Senate Democrats accepted the House-passed bill.

Before joining the administration, Vought had advised hard-line conservatives in Congress to use the prospect of a shutdown to negotiate for policy concessions. But on Monday, he berated Democrats for engaging in a similar ploy.

“This is hostage-taking,” he said. “It is not something that we are going to accept.”