The Hill News

The ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee said Tea Party Republicans are to blame for Congress's failure to compromise on a federal spending bill and avoid a government shutdown.

"What has been clear is that Speaker [John] Boehner is not really in control of his own caucus.The Tea Party Caucus is driving the train," Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said on MSNBC Thursday.

Van Hollen also said negotiations had not moved from where they were last night, when President Obama announced after a closed meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Boehner (R-Ohio) that negotiations would be ongoing through the night until a compromise was reached.

"We hope we can get a deal done, but things stand right where they did late last night when the president talked to the nation," Van Hollen said.

Van Hollen's comments come the day before the current short-term measure funding the government expires. Both Democrats an! d Republicans have insisted that they want to avoid a shutdown but thus far have been unable to reach a compromise on how much federal spending shut be cut, or where those cuts should be made.

In recent days lawmakers across the spectrum have said that if the government does shut down, members of Congress shouldn't receive pay.