The White House has sent paperwork to the Senate to withdraw the nomination of E.J. Antoni as head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, CNN reports.

“Senate Democrats encouraged each other to dig in and stand up to President Trump on government funding during a private caucus meeting Tuesday,” Axios reports.

“A government shutdown is just hours away without a compromise from lawmakers — and Democratic resolve is only strengthening.”

“The meeting of Senate Democrats on Tuesday was described by multiple sources as a motivational one, with lawmakers encouraging each other to hold their ground against the administration.”

Hours before the government funding clock runs out, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said that a shutdown would benefit President Trump, The Hill reports.

Said Fetterman: “The president has a lot of levers he could pull. This is one we could pull but why would we pull that lever? Because that allows him to pull a lot more levers.”

He added: “I think that would be the ideal for Project 2025.”

Bloomberg: “Schumer’s move gives Democrats a rare moment of leverage in a Washington where Republicans control the House, the Senate, the White House and the Supreme Court. Trump has waged a global trade war, deployed troops in cities, slashed the federal work force and withheld funding for states, cities and health care research, mostly by executive order. Congressional Republicans, meanwhile, passed Trump’s massive tax and spending package under special procedures that required no Democratic votes.”

“But to fund the government — Congress’s primary job — Republicans need 60 votes in the Senate to end a filibuster. There are just 53 Republican senators, giving the chamber’s 47 Democrats outsize influence in this debate.”