Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Thursday evening that he would help advance a House GOP spending bill that would fund the government through the end of the fiscal year—a strong indication that enough Senate Democrats will ultimately join Republicans to avert a government shutdown ahead of Friday’s midnight deadline.
“While the CR bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse,” the New York Democrat said on the Senate floor, hours after two dozen Senate Democrats said they are firmly against it.
Schumer added that he finds the Republican spending bill “deeply partisan” but is more concerned about the prospect of “allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown.”
Additional Democrats could follow Schumer’s lead. So far, Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania is the only other Democrat to publicly say he will vote for the House-passed spending bill, calling opposition to it “total theater.” At least five more Senate Democrats would need to back the bill to avoid a shutdown.
Earlier Thursday, Arizona Senators Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, who were both considered possible “yes” votes, joined a growing list of Democrats opposing the GOP resolution. Republicans also control the Senate, but are seven votes short of the 60 they need to overcome a filibuster under the chamber’s rules. That’s put incredible pressure on more than a dozen of the chamber’s Democrats who have not ruled out voting for the GOP bill just to avoid a shutdown.
The measure, championed by Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota, would fund the government through September at last year’s levels, while cutting non-defense spending by $13 billion and increasing military spending by $6 billion. It would also scale back funding from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act by reversing new investments at the IRS for tax enforcement and reducing spending for social programs.
Despite Schumer’s decision, Democrats have blasted the measure, arguing that it would accelerate the White House’s efforts to dismantle federal agencies through Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. Many in the party also fear that a shutdown could play into Trump’s hands, allowing him to erode more government functions permanently. The last government shutdown took place during Trump’s first term in office, and lasted about 35 days—the longest shutdown in the modern era.
“I think what everyone is wrestling with is that this is like either outcome is terrible, right?” Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, who came out against the bill, told reporters Thursday afternoon. “This President has put us in a position where, in either direction, lots of people’s constituents are going to get hurt and hurt badly. So people are wrestling with what is the least worst outcome.”
Trump has preemptively sought to shift blame for a potential shutdown onto Democrats, despite his party controlling Congress. “If there’s a shutdown, it’s only going to be because of Democrats,” he told reporters Thursday. He also hinted at using the impasse as leverage for pushing through a new tax reform package: “We’re talking about getting to work immediately on the greatest tax bill ever passed.”
A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday found that 32% of registered voters would blame Democrats in Congress for a shutdown, while 31% would blame Republicans in Congress and 22% would blame Trump.
With time running out, Schumer had been facing intense pressure from constituents and progressives in the House to stand firm against the GOP bill. Late Wednesday, he publicly pushed for Republicans to allow a vote on a 30-day stopgap measure; such legislation would be expected to fail. “Those games won’t fool anyone. It won’t trick voters, it won’t trick House members. People will not forget it,” warned Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive Democrat from New York, in a post on X about attempts to find a middle ground with Republicans.
“You don’t stop a bully by handing over your lunch money, and you don’t stop tyrant Trump by giving him more power,” added Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley in a video posted to X, underscoring Democrats’ concerns that the GOP bill would give the Trump Administration unchecked authority to slash government programs and purge federal employees.
Senate Republicans, however, remain confident that Democrats will fold before the deadline. “They’ll cave,” predicted Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, before Schumer announced he would back their bill. “They have been railing against Elon Musk and the Trump Administration over reductions in force of the federal employees, and now they basically want to put all of them out of work by shutting down the government.”
The political consequences of a shutdown remain uncertain. A prolonged shutdown would halt federal services, furlough workers, and delay paychecks for government employees. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that such an outcome would exact significant damage on the economy. “I can tell you what’s not good for the economy—this government shutdown,” he said outside the White House on Thursday. “I don’t know what Democrats are thinking here. They’re going to own it.”
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