Government shutdown updates: Trump signs government funding bill

Two of the nation's busiest federal courts are each scheduled to be closed the next two Fridays even if Congress votes on Wednesday to end the government shutdown.

United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York will close this Friday and next Friday to minimize disruptions, sources familiar with the decision told ABC News.

One source likened the closures to flight reductions caused by a shortage of air traffic controllers.

The courts prefer to give clerks, stenographers and security guards an assigned Friday off rather than delay or disrupt trials and hearings with unpredictable, varied sick calls and other shutdown-related staff shortages.

Federal court buildings in Manhattan, Brooklyn, White Plains and Central Islip are expected to close even if the shutdown ends. The sources said there is a lag in restarting payroll systems.

-ABC News' Aaron Katersky

The House is set to take up the Senate-passed funding package on Wednesday evening.

First votes are scheduled for 5:10 p.m., with the vote to end the shutdown expected after 7 p.m. Democrats are expected to largely vote against the bill, but some moderates may vote along with Republicans to approve it.

Once passed, it heads to President Donald Trump for his signature, and he has indicated that he will sign it. That could happen as soon as Wednesday night.

-ABC News' Justin Gomez

The House Rules Committee voted 8-4 to advance the Senate-passed government funding package -- sending the legislation to the House floor for consideration.

The committee gaveled out the long hearing at 1:37 a.m. ET.

The House will next debate the measure, which could reopen the federal government, with the intention of holding votes as early as 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

-ABC News’ Lauren Peller and Alex Ederson

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters that House Democrats will offer an amendment during the ongoing Rules Committee meeting to remove an amendment from the Senate version of the bill that would allow for senators to sue if their phone records are investigated without notice.

"House Democrats are going to offer an amendment before the Rules Committee to get that self-dealing, sick provision out of the spending agreement. The notion that eight Republican senators signed off by John Thune and the Republicans, apparently in the Senate and in the House, would give themselves the ability, essentially, to rip millions of taxpayer dollars away from the American people so they could line their pockets because these people were insurrectionist sympathizers, is insanity," Jeffries said.

"And we're going to tattoo that provision just like we're going to tattoo the Republican health care crisis on the foreheads of every single House Republican who dares vote for this bill,” he added.

According to the bill text, senators may seek up to $500,000 in statutory damages from the government if their phone records are subpoenaed without their knowledge.

That amendment is likely to fail the Rules Committee.

-ABC News’ Meghan Mistry