Early this morning, the U.S. Senate voted on a bill to 'restore pay for federal employees.' This vote was part of a temporary budget measure and can be seen as a component to ease the government shutdown, aiming to provide wages to federal employees who haven't been paid during the shutdown. The result was 53 votes in favor and 43 against. Although it was a majority, the bill needed at least 60 votes to move forward procedurally. So, it did not pass. As of now, the likelihood of the U.S. government fully ending the shutdown next week seems pretty low. It's likely going to drag on for another week, but the American public still has high expectations for the shutdown to end soon.