The federal government shut down at midnight Friday after the Senate failed to pass a continuing spending resolution that would have funded the government going forward. The House of Representatives had passed a bill, H.R. 195, on Thursday that would have funded the government through February 16. However, in the Senate, 60 votes were needed to invoke cloture on the bill, a procedural measure that would have allowed a vote on the bill itself to take place, and a vote taken just before the deadline fell well short of that number, with only 50 Senators voting in favor.