Government shutdown updates: Leavitt says Trump exploring cutting aid to Portland

The Senate is scheduled to reconvene Friday and take up two stopgap-funding bills -- one sponsored by each party -- that could end the government shutdown that began Wednesday.

Friday’s session is scheduled to begin at 11:30 a.m. ET, with voting expected in the afternoon.

Democrats on Wednesday blocked, for the third time, a stopgap funding bill offered by Republicans. Democrats are insisting that any solution address their demands on health care before they vote to advance it.

No votes were held on Thursday, as the Senate broke for Yom Kippur.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Thursday again placed the blame for the shutdown on Democrats, saying they were "playing a losing game" by not supporting the House-passed Republican bill, which would provide government funding for seven weeks.

Trump and first lady Melania Trump are having dinner at the Vice President’s Residence with Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance, the White House confirmed.

-ABC News’ Hannah Demissie

In an X post explaining the FDA’s decision to approve a new generic version of mifepristone, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said the agency approved the new tablet only “because federal law requires approval when an application proves the generic is identical to the brand-name drug.”

Kennedy posted a copy of a letter he sent last month to Republican attorneys general in which he pledged the FDA would conduct a new review of abortion pills, a move abortion rights advocates say could lead to significant restrictions on the most common abortion method nationwide.

In his post on Thursday, Kennedy doubled down on that pledge, and specifically access to mifepristone through telehealth appointments, which is how many women access abortion care in states with bans.

-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett and Will McDuffie

In preview clips published ahead of a full interview with the Trump-friendly network OANN Thursday night, the president recounted his meeting with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries on Monday.

“Well, we got along very well. I learned that they were much different outside of the office, because in the office, they were total gentlemen,” Trump said. “Outside of the office, they get out to the press and they start ranting and raving. I said, ‘Are those the two guys who just left?’ They were very nice. We had a nice talk for an hour, and they went outside, and it was a different group of people. I mean, they're political people.”

“And one of the other things is fraud, waste and abuse. They don't want to have any anybody. I mean, the whole thing is crazy. When you find obvious fraud, you want to take care of it, waste and abuse, and they don't want anything to change, and what that's going to do is ruin it for the people that are taxpaying, great American patriots,” Trump continued.

-ABC News’ Hannah Demissie