The US government shutdown continues ahead of a senate vote to try end the stalemate.
Both sides continued to blame each other across the weekend.
The Senate there will vote on stop-gap funding at 12.00pm (5.00pm Irish time) on Monday.
It would pave the way to get the federal government fully up and running again until February 8th.
The main stumbling block in agreeing a deal is immigration and the DACA programme to protect from deportation the so-called 'Dreamers' - 700,000 immigrants who arrived illegally in the US as children.
The shutdown started on Friday at midnight and while the military is still active, its personnel will not be paid until politicians agree a funding deal.
New York's Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island will re-open on Monday however, after Governor Andrew Cuomo said US$65,000 (€53,172) of state funding would be used each day.
Meanwhile callers to the White House comment line have been surprised to hear a recorded message, accusing the Democrats of 'holding government funding hostage'.
@jaketapper I didn't believe it. So I called. @WhiteHouse comment line recording pic.twitter.com/WxlS9PUrd0
— Favian Quezada (@FavianQuezada) January 20, 2018
