By Siobhan Hughes, Kristina Peterson and Natalie Andrews 

WASHINGTON -- House and Senate lawmakers were headed back to work Saturday, as leaders from both parties prepared for a weekend of talks to resolve disagreements over immigration policy that triggered the first government shutdown in more than four years.

The impasse on Friday night resulted in the closure of many government services and set off a new round of finger-pointing over who is to blame. Funding for the government expired at 12:01 a.m. ET Saturday after the Senate rejected a one-month spending bill that had earlier been passed by the House.

Despite the shutdown, much of the federal government's work was expected to continue, as some departments' operations are deemed essential and some agencies say they have sufficient funds to carry on operations for a few days, while lawmakers sort out their differences

The shutdown marked the culmination of a fight that began in September, when President Donald Trump ended a program shielding the young illegal immigrants known as Dreamers from deportation. He gave Congress until March 5 to hash out a replacement.

Democrats had hoped to use their leverage in the Senate, where Republicans control 51 seats but need 60 votes to pass the spending legislation, to force Republicans to agree to legal protections for the Dreamers. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said he wouldn't hold a vote on a deal not blessed by Mr. Trump and that Democrats shouldn't be tying government operations to the immigration fight.

Mr. Trump, on Twitter early Saturday morning, accused Democrats of being "far more concerned with Illegal Immigrants than they are with our great Military or Safety at our dangerous Southern Border. They could have easily made a deal but decided to play Shutdown politics instead. #WeNeedMoreRepublicansIn18 in order to power through mess!"

The Senate was expected to be back in session at noon, while House lawmakers were told to return to work for a 9 a.m. session. Mr. Trump on Friday had canceled plans to travel to his private resort on Palm Beach, Fla., where a celebration had been planned for Saturday to celebrate the anniversary of his first year in office.

The Saturday sessions follow a dramatic night of failed negotiations, and a failed 50-49 Senate vote to move forward with a House bill that would have funded the government through Feb. 16.

Five Democrats voted with most Republicans for the bill while five Republicans opposed it, including Mr. McConnell, a move that allowed him to bring it up for another vote later. Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) didn't vote because he was at home undergoing cancer treatment.

Negotiations centered on a deal that would fund the government through Feb. 8, with a commitment by the Republican leader to hold a Senate vote on immigration legislation if the White House doesn't sign off on an immigration package, according to a Senate Republican aide. Under the agreement, lawmakers would be able to win amendment votes, an option that isn't always available in the Senate.

On Friday night Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) blamed the White House for the shutdown.

"The dynamic of the past few weeks, during which the congressional Republicans looked to the president for guidance and the president provided none, prevailed again today, unfortunately," Mr. Schumer said.

In a day-long scramble to avoid the shutdown that was due at midnight, Mr. Schumer worked Friday with Mr. Trump to reach a broader resolution over the immigration and spending issues that has paralyzed Capitol Hill. Over cheeseburgers at the White House, the two New Yorkers talked about the parameters of a far-ranging deal.

During the lunch, Mr. Schumer indicated he would be willing to provide more than the $1.6 billion for the construction of the border wall that the administration had initially requested for this year, in exchange for protections for Dreamers that would include a path to citizenship, according to someone familiar with the negotiations.

Mr. Schumer and Mr. Trump also talked about boosting military spending close to $700 billion, a priority of Republicans. The meeting ended on a positive note, without any commitments, and Mr. Trump said he would talk to Republican leaders. But later in the day, Mr. Trump's tone changed and White House chief of staff John Kelly called Mr. Schumer to say the ideas under discussion were too liberal.

"What happened to that president" who was eager for a deal, Mr. Schumer asked on the Senate floor early Saturday morning. "He backed off at the first sign of pressure." The White House didn't immediately return a request for comment on the negotiations.

One senator briefed on the meeting between the president and Mr. Schumer said it didn't go well, putting the onus back on Congress to find a path forward. Another person familiar with the meeting said it wasn't contentious, but it made clear that neither side would budge.

On Friday night, senators disagreed over whether a stopgap measure should extend beyond Jan. 30, the date of the State of the Union address. They also couldn't reach an agreement over whether protections for the Dreamers should be included in a must-pass bill or considered separately, lawmakers and aides said.

Much of the government's work is expected to continue despite the shutdown, as the Trump administration aims to apply what senior administration officials called flexibility to shutdown rules that contain a variety of exceptions.

Social Security payments would be deposited as 53,000 workers for that agency stay on the job, as would Medicare reimbursements, because the payments don't rely on an annual appropriation. In addition, Mr. Trump's agencies aim to go further than previous shutdowns and existing plans on the book, keeping agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency open with unused funds, as well as national parks.

Mr. Trump's own activities, including planned travel to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, can continue under an exemption for activity required by the president to carry out his constitutional duties.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis isn't halting a planned trip to Asia this weekend; the military will generally continue operations, as will the Department of Homeland Security under exceptions for essential activities.

The director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney, said Friday that his agency intended a different approach from the one taken by the Obama administration in 2013.

"We are going to manage the shutdown differently; we are not going to weaponize it," Mr. Mulvaney said.

As the hours ticked down Friday, both parties worked to ensure any political fallout would fall on the other side of the aisle in a year when control of both chambers is up for grabs in the fall's midterm elections. Democrats stressed that Republicans control both chambers of Congress, as well as the White House.

"Their ability to govern is so tremendously in question right now," Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D., Ill.) said.

Republicans chastised Democrats for derailing the spending bill in the Senate over an immigration debate that faces a later deadline.

Still, Republicans worried that their party would shoulder an unfair portion of the blame, given that they control both chambers of Congress and the White House.

"We can say the Democrats voted against" funding the government, said Rep. Peter King (R., N.Y.). "On the other hand, we control everything."

Lawmakers said early Saturday they weren't sure how this shutdown would compare to the most recent one, in 2013, which lasted 16 full days.

"I cannot think of one that really compares to this," said Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, the longest serving Democrat in the Senate. "We've never had an instance where the president changes his mind all the time, and then says we ought to have a good shutdown. I can't think of any president, Republican or Democrat, who wanted a shutdown."

Mr. Trump said on Twitter last May that a government shutdown might be needed to get his priorities through Congress.

Write to Siobhan Hughes at siobhan.hughes@wsj.com, Kristina Peterson at kristina.peterson@wsj.com and Natalie Andrews at Natalie.Andrews@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 20, 2018 09:54 ET (14:54 GMT)