Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., railed against Senate Democrats’ move to block the GOP’s short-term funding extension as Congress gears up for a government shutdown.

Democratic lawmakers led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., voted to block Republicans' continuing resolution (CR) for a second time just hours ahead of the deadline to fund the government.

It’s unlikely that a deal will be struck in the waning hours of fiscal year (FY) 2025, and neither side is ready to blink.

Thune said there would be more votes to come on the same bill but noted that if Schumer wanted to talk, he knows where to find him. He also said there are Democrats who "are very unhappy with the situation that they are in."

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"We didn't ask Democrats to swallow any new Republican policies. We didn't add partisan riders," Thune said. "We simply asked Democrats to extend existing funding levels to allow the Senate to continue the bipartisan appropriations work that we started."

"And Senate Democrats said no," he continued. "Why? Because far left interest groups and far left Democrat members wanted a showdown with the president. And so, Senate Democrats have sacrificed the American people to Democrats' partisan interests."

Republicans tried and failed to again advance their CR, which would have extended government funding until Nov. 21 with the main goal of giving lawmakers more time to pass the dozen spending bills needed to fund the government, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since the 1990s.

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Despite an impending shutdown, Thune and Senate Republicans found a bright spot in the failed vote: more Democrats crossed the aisle than the previous test earlier this month.

"The cracks in the Democrats are already showing," Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said. "When we had a vote on our proposal to keep the government open, the clean CR right before the recess, we had one Democrat vote. Tonight we had three."

Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Angus King, I-Maine, all crossed the aisle to support the bill.

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Meanwhile, Schumer signaled that he was not ready to budge from his position and instead pointed the finger at the GOP and President Donald Trump for "plunging America into a shutdown, rejecting bipartisan talks, pushing a partisan bill, and risking America's health care."

Senate Democrats pushed for an extension to expiring Obamacare tax credits, among other things, that Republicans argued were not provisions that should be tacked onto a short-term funding extension. 

Still, Schumer was resolute that Thune and the GOP needed to come to the negotiating table to solve that issue and craft a bipartisan CR.

"We hope they sit down with us and talk. Otherwise, it's the Republicans who will be driving us straight towards a shutdown tonight, and at midnight," Schumer said. "And the American people will blame them for bringing the federal government to a halt."

The Taliban shut down internet and telecom services across Afghanistan on Monday, plunging the country into near-total digital darkness and drawing a UN warning of "significant harm" to citizens.

The blackout is said to have come after Afghanistan’s 9,350-kilometer fiber optic network was disabled, leaving flights grounded, banks frozen, and millions of citizens and businesses cut off.

Kabul International Airport has seen all commercial flights canceled or marked as "unknown," leaving the country’s main air hub virtually deserted, per Reuters.

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Monitoring group NetBlocks also confirmed to Reuters that traffic levels had dropped to around one percent of normal, underscoring the unprecedented scale of the disruption.

According to Reuters, the Taliban ordered internet and mobile data services to be cut across the country, with diplomatic and industry sources confirming cellphone connectivity had collapsed. 

NetBlocks also confirmed connectivity was cut in phases starting on Monday, with the final stage also affecting telephone services, which share infrastructure with the internet.

The nationwide blackout appears to be part of a phased campaign led by Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada in Kabul. Earlier in September, he directed the dismantling of fiber optic networks in many provinces. 

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Officials have defended the move as a way to curb "immorality" online, echoing earlier statements from provincial governors.

Reuters reported that Afghan telecom companies said they were "managing this sensitive and complex situation" under Taliban directives, while hoping to restore services soon. 

Private broadcaster Tolo News, also cited by Reuters, reported that authorities had set a one-week deadline to shut down 3G and 4G internet services for cellphones, leaving only 2G active.

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In a statement, the United Nations mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) urged the Taliban to immediately restore access and warned that the blackout "has left Afghanistan almost completely cut off from the outside world, and risks inflicting significant harm on the Afghan people." 

Reuters also quoted UN officials as saying the blackout has crippled humanitarian operations. 

Arafat Jamal, the UN refugee agency’s country representative, told reporters how it could no longer reach frontline aid workers, including those responding to a deadly earthquake in the east.

"It is another crisis on top of the existing crisis," he said via satellite link from Kabul.

The Taliban administration could not be reached by Fox News Digital for comment.