Government shutdown updates: Senate vote marks step towards ending federal shutdown

The Senate is scheduled to be in for a rare Sunday session as it continues to attempt to chart a path out of the 40-day government shutdown.

The Senate is expected to convene at 1:30 p.m. There are currently no votes scheduled. It’s not yet clear whether any will be added to the schedule today.

Majority Leader John Thune said Saturday that the Senate will vote at some point on advancing a short-term funding bill with three of the 12 full-year funding bills attached to it. If passed, the whole government would open until a yet-to-be-determined date — likely sometime in January — and certain government programs, like SNAP and Veterans Affairs, would be funded for the full fiscal year.

Text of those three bills is still not available, so it’s not clear if that the Senate would consider holding a vote on this package as of Sunday morning, even if the text is eventually released. It’s also not clear that Democrats would accept this offer.

-ABC News’ Allison Pecorin

The Senate is not expected to take any votes on Saturday, according to GOP leadership aides.

The Senate floor has been open since noon. The biggest action of the day has been speeches, including from Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.

-ABC News’ Allison Pecorin

Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor Saturday that it’s a "terrible mistake" for Republicans to dismiss his proposal to reopen the government with a one-year extension of government funding.

Republicans have called the proposal a "non-starter.”

"I know many Republicans stormed out the gate to dismiss this offer, but that's a terrible mistake," Schumer said. “Our offer is not a new policy. This is not negotiating in a shutdown. It is simply agreeing to maintain current funding levels.”

He said Republicans are refusing to even acknowledge the healthcare issues.

"It's alarming that Republicans even refuse to acknowledge we have an immediate crisis right now that needs fixing," Schumer said.

Schumer continued to criticize Republicans for the damaging effects of the record-shattering shutdown, blaming Republicans for delays and cancelations at airports and for ongoing issues with SNAP.

He also said the administration displayed "pathological levels of vindictiveness" by taking the case about paying out SNAP benefits to the Supreme Court.

"This morning tens of millions of Americans remain in limbo as this administration continues its crusade against SNAP,” Schumer said. “The Supreme Court has allowed the administration to withhold benefits as the case makes its way through the lower courts. For this administration to go all the way to the Supreme Court just to get out of having to pay SNAP benefits for hungry kids is pathological levels of vindictiveness.”

He said the SNAP issue is "in the administration's hands."

"The minute the administration wanted to, it could find a fix for SNAP and ensure that people don't go hungry,” Schumer said.

Schumer also called the massive airport cancelations "transparently political.”

"What's happening at America's airports right now is not an accident -- it's a stunt,” he said.

-ABC News’ Allison Pecorin

In remarks on the Senate floor on Saturday, Majority Leader John Thune called the Democratic proposal presented by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer a "non-starter.”

The plan, which Schumer outlined on the Senate floor on Friday, would have seen Democrats approving a short-term extension of government funding if Republicans agreed to include a one-year extension of the Affordable Care Act tax credits.

"The Democrat leader's proposal is a non-starter for the Republican majority,” Thune said. “The Democrat leader wants to believe that this is a quote simple proposal. That it is some sort of compromise. But it is not. He is talking about throwing tens of billions more tax payer dollars at a program that even democrats admit has failed to lower health care costs.”

Republicans have consistently said they want to make reforms to Obamacare. They've also said they're unwilling to negotiate on the ACA until the government is reopened.

"Republicans are not about to further burden taxpayers by blindly extending a flawed program,” Thune said. “The Democrat's proposal is just more of the same: Masking rising premiums and padding insurance companies’ profits with more taxpayer dollars.”

However, Thune did say that the proposal presented by Schumer on Friday suggests that Democrats may be ready to engage on reopening the government.

Thune continued to assert that passing the clean short term funding bill remains the "only way out" of the shutdown.

-ABC News’ Allison Pecorin