The Hill News

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said that since last night's meeting at the White House, he'd grown pessimistic about the chances to avoid a government shutdown.

During a speech on the Senate floor, Reid said that in the hours since the meeting with President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), he'd become less sanguine.

"I am not nearly as optimistic â€" and that's an understatement â€" as I was 11 hours ago," Reid said.

The top Senate Democrat said his staff had worked with Boehner's and Obama's throughout the night to try to reach a deal, to no avail. Obama has asked Boehner and Reid to return to the White House for a third straight day on Thursday afternoon to resume negotiations.

Reid signaled that the hangup didn't lie in the numbers or depth of cuts, but rather in the various policy riders included in the legislation.

The two major riders throwing a snag in negotiations are one that wo! uld rescind federal funding to Planned Parenthood and another seeking to limit the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

"The only thing holding up an agreement is ideology. I'm sorry to say that my friend, the Speaker, and the Republican leadership, have drawn a line in the sand," Reid said.

Meanwhile, in the House, Republicans have suggested that they'll push forward with a one-week continuing resolution that contains a provision to ban taxpayer-funded abortions in the city of Washington. 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) shot back by arguing that the one-week CR presents Senate Democrats with their only reasonable option to prevent a shutdown.

"Democrats can either take up and pass this reasonable bill that falls well within the bounds of what their own leadership has defined as acceptable. Or shut down the government," McConnell said in a floor speech, following Reid. “That’s it. That’s the choice."

Updated 11:27 a.m.