The Latest: WH budget director addresses shutdown prospects

WASHINGTON — The Latest on the budget battle in Congress (all times local):

10:25 a.m.

White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney is putting the chances of a government shutdown at "between 50 and 60 percent."

Mulvaney spoke to reporters at the White House Friday as the prospect of a shutdown loomed. He said he was "handicapping it" between 50 and 60 percent. But, he added, "we're planning for it as though it's 100 percent."

After the House passed a four-week, government-wide spending bill, Senate Democrats vowed a filibuster unless there's a deal to protect certain young immigrants.

Asked about a Plan B, Mulvaney noted talks over a shorter term deal, but said the House may be leaving which could create a funding lapse.

Still, he said that he's open to that. He says: "we'd like to keep the government open."

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8:25 a.m.

President Donald Trump will not leave for a weekend at his Palm Beach estate unless a government shutdown is averted.

The White House said Friday that Trump will not head to Florida unless a funding bill passes.

Trump was set to leave Friday afternoon and planned to celebrate the one-year anniversary of his inauguration at Mar-a-Lago.

Trump tweeted Friday morning about the Friday night shutdown deadline, suggesting Democrats would be to blame.

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7:40 a.m.

President Donald Trump says Senate Democrats are focused on "illegal immigration and weak borders" as a government shutdown looms.

Trump says on Twitter Friday: "Government Funding Bill past (sic) last night in the House of Representatives. Now Democrats are needed if it is to pass in the Senate - but they want illegal immigration and weak borders."

He adds: "Shutdown coming? We need more Republican victories in 2018!"

A divided Congress stared down a government shutdown Friday as Republicans and Democrats remain deadlocked on immigration.

After the House passed a four-week, government-wide spending bill, Senate Democrats vowed a filibuster unless there's a deal to protect around 700,000 immigrants from deportation who arrived in the U.S. as children and stayed illegally.

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1:08 a.m.

A bitterly-divided Congress is hurtling toward a government shutdown this weekend in a partisan stare-down over demands by Democrats for a solution on politically fraught legislation to protect about 700,000 younger immigrants from being deported.

Democrats in the Senate have served notice they will filibuster a four-week, government-wide funding bill that passed the House Thursday evening, seeking to shape a subsequent measure but exposing themselves to charges they are responsible for a looming shutdown.

Republicans controlling the narrowly-divided chamber took up the fight, arguing that Democrats were holding the entire government hostage over demands to protect "Dreamer" immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.