Senate Democrats must decide between blocking a spending measure many in their party have described as a blank check for President Trump — or backing the plan in order to avoid a government shutdown.
Democrats huddled behind closed doors Thursday afternoon to debate their plans ahead of a critical vote on whether to move forward on House-passed spending bill to fund the government through the end of September. They have until the end of Friday to avoid a shutdown and the rapidly approaching deadline gives them few options.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., blamed Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for the creating the bind Democrats face and called on Democrats to make a decision on how they will proceed.
"It's time for Democrats to fish or cut bait," Thune said in a speech on the Senate floor. "We have two days until government funding expires. And Democrats need to decide if they're going to support funding legislation that came over from the House, or if they're going to shut down the government."
Thune said the House-passed spending bill is the best option available at this moment.
The party's base is demanding they fight President Trump and Elon Musk's rapid fire cuts to the federal workforce and block the funding bill that was crafted without Democratic input.
But Democrats say it is not that simple. Some worry about the unpredictable impact and length of a shutdown, and what the plan would be to get out of one. Also weighing on Democrats hoping to regain control of at least one chamber of Congress is 2026 is the political impact. Republicans control the House, Senate and White House, but Trump has a large microphone and Senate Democrats will end up determining what happens.
On Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the GOP doesn't have the 60 votes needed to get around a filibuster on the bill known as the continuing resolution (CR) that passed the House.
"Funding the government should be a bipartisan effort," Schumer said on the Senate floor on Wednesday. "But Republicans chose a partisan path, drafting their continuing resolution without any input, any input, from Congressional Democrats. Because of that, Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on the House CR."
Senate Republicans hold a 53-seat majority, but likely need eight Democratic votes in the GOP-led chamber to overcome a filibuster in the GOP-led chamber to pass the measure, known as a continuing resolution.
Senate Republicans will see at least one defection because Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul said last week he would vote no on the plan, unless it could codify cuts led by Elon Musk, the billionaire and advisor to President Trump.
So far only one Senate Democrat, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, has said publicly he would vote with the GOP to approve the CR. Fetterman said he wants to avoid a shutdown: "that's chaos and I will never vote for chaos."
Schumer instead called for a four-week stopgap measure on Wednesday, which would keep agencies funded at current levels through April 11 as both parties negotiate on the annual spending bills.
This alternative gives Democrats the chance to say they are working to avoid any lapse in government funding.
Thune told reporters Thursday he was open to giving Democrats an opportunity to vote on their proposal, but he didn't expect it to pass. He said he had not heard any offer from Democrats yet.
"If they want to vote on that in exchange for getting us the votes to pass to September 30, I think we're open to that. But as you all know, the House is gone, so whatever happens is going to have to be, I think, the final action here," Thune said.
In the hours that followed Schumer's push for the short term bill, two Senate Democrats up for re-election in 2026, Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and John Hickenlooper, D-Colo. said they would vote no on the GOP-backed measure. And although Schumer signaled his caucus was united, not all Democrats agree.
Fetterman argued Schumer's plan doesn't have a chance.
"Shut the government down, plunge the country into chaos, risk a recession or Exchange cloture for a 30 day CR that 100% fails," he said Thursday on social media platform X. "Total theater is neither honest with constituents nor a winning argument."
Several Senators who said they were undecided earlier in the day told reporters Thursday afternoon they were planning to vote against the CR.
Both Arizona Senators, Democrats Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego, publicly came out against the funding bill through September after saying for last few days they had concerns about the impact of the stopgap and a possible shutdown on their state.
Many Democrats described the choice facing them it as a "pick-your-poison" moment with no easy answer. Helping Republicans pass the CR avoids a shutdown and issues they argue impact defense and other programs that are relying on increases instead of flat funding. But blocking it opens them up to the uncertainty of what the Trump administration would decide about who qualifies as essential workers and what other cuts they could impose during a shutdown.
House Democrats remained largely united on opposing the plan, and many took to social media to urge their Senate Democratic counterparts to do the same.
300x250 Ad
300x250 Ad