WASHINGTON (States Newsroom) — Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced during a floor speech Thursday evening that he will vote to advance the stopgap spending bill that must become law before Friday at midnight to avoid a partial government shutdown.
“While the CR bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse,” Schumer said, referring to the stopgap bill, formally known as a continuing resolution.
“For sure, the Republican bill is a terrible option. It is not a clean CR. It is deeply partisan. It doesn’t address far too many of this country’s needs,” he added. “But I believe allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option.”
The Senate is scheduled to take its first procedural vote on the bill Friday, but both parties will need to reach a time agreement to hold a final passage vote before the deadline.
Schumer’s comments came just one day after he declared that Republicans didn’t have the 60 votes needed to move beyond procedural votes and onto final passage, setting the stage for a funding lapse that would affect nearly every corner of the federal government.
The reversal by the party’s leader indicates that enough Democrats likely will vote with Republicans to cut off debate on the House-passed bill and send it to President Donald Trump, despite intense objections from some in the Democratic Party who want to protest Trump’s actions and obtain commitments that Trump will spend the money Congress appropriates.
No pay during shutdown
During a partial government shutdown, federal departments and agencies have broad authority to determine which federal employees keep working and which are sent home. Neither group would get paid until after Congress and Trump reach agreement on a way to fund the government.
Schumer argued that entering a partial government shutdown would give Trump and members of his administration even more authority than they have now to limit federal operations.
“The decision on what is essential would be solely left to the executive branch, with nobody left at the agencies to check them,” Schumer said. “In short, a shutdown would give Donald Trump, Elon Musk and DOGE and (Office of Management and Budget Director Russ) Vought the keys to the city, state and country.”
Democrats, he said, also want to ensure that any negative repercussions from firing federal workers en masse are solely the responsibility of the Trump administration.
“Right now, Donald Trump owns the chaos in the government. He owns the chaos in the stock market. He owns the damage happening to our economy from one end of the country to the other,” Schumer said. “Donald Trump is hoping for a shutdown, because it will distract from his true agenda — delivering massive cuts to the rich, paid for on the backs of American families.”
Democratic votes needed
Republicans hold 53 seats in the Senate, but Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul has said he’ll vote against advancing the continuing resolution, meaning at least eight Democrats must vote with the GOP for the resolution to move forward.
Schumer and Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman, who previously announced support for the stopgap spending bill, will need at least six of their colleagues to vote with them on Friday.
It wasn’t immediately clear Thursday which Democratic senators would cast those votes.
The House voted mostly along party lines Tuesday to send the stopgap spending bill to the Senate.
Congress was supposed to complete work on the dozen annual government funding bills before Oct. 1, but has instead used continuing resolutions to fund the government through Friday.
Appropriators from both political parties and both chambers had spent weeks trying to reach agreement on how much to spend on the bills during the current fiscal year, but were unable to in time.
To avoid a funding lapse, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., released a continuing resolution over the weekend that would fund the government through September, essentially cutting off efforts to get agreement on the full-year bills nearly six months into the fiscal year.
The continuing resolution will free up time and energy for Republicans, who won unified control of government during the November elections, to negotiate a deal among themselves on extending the 2017 tax law, and finding ways to pay for the deficit increase that is expected to cause.
