US Senate efforts to reopen government show frustration as deal proves elusive

By David Morgan, Richard Cowan and Katharine Jackson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Bipartisan efforts in the U.S. Senate to reopen the federal government as early as this week gave way to fresh signs of frustration on Tuesday, even as Republicans and Democrats aired details of a possible path out of the five-week-old impasse.

The shutdown, which is set to become the longest in U.S. history on Wednesday, gave way to the first glimmers of a breakthrough in closed-door bipartisan discussions that lawmakers said were aimed at agreeing on a new short-term funding bill to reopen the government and give Congress additional time to agree on full-year appropriations bills.

“We’re all being very careful to say that nothing is a done deal at this point, because it’s not,” said Republican Senator Mike Roun