The Senate passed a stopgap government funding bill on Friday – hours before a partial shutdown of federal agencies was set to take effect Friday at midnight.
A handful of Senate Democrats joined with Republicans to advance the House-passed GOP plan to keep the government funded through September, which cleared the upper chamber’s filibuster in a 62-38 vote, with 10 Democrats voting to advance the measure.
Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Gary Peters of Michigan, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Chuck Schumer of New York joined independent Sen. Angus King of Maine and every Republican except Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky to move the bill forward.
Senators voted down four amendments to the bill before it went to a final floor vote, where it passed in 54-46 vote.
Shaheen and King voted with Republicans, minus Paul, to send the continuing resolution to President Trump’s desk for his signature.
The procedural vote came after a crop of younger congressional Democrats in both chambers railed against Schumer for having signaled his opposition to the Republican agenda earlier this week — only to reverse course within 24 hours.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) chided Schumer for the abrupt U-turn in a floor speech Friday.
“Last summer, the Appropriations Committee reported out 11 of its 12 bills with bipartisan support. Six of those bills passed out of the committee unanimously,” the Republican leader said.
“But month after month, Leader Schumer found something more important to do than fund the government. And not one – not one – of those 11 bipartisan bills ever came to the floor.”
Thune added that the GOP wasn’t “thrilled” about the funding bill, which was a carry over of the spending levels set by former President Joe Biden during his last year in office, but his conference sense it was the “best option” to prevent a shutdown.
The bill — a continuing resolution that will essentially extend fiscal 2024 spending levels through the start of the 2026 fiscal year — is backed by President Trump.
Under the measure, defense spending will get a $6 billion boost from fiscal year 2024, but non-defense discretionary spending will fall $13 billion beneath the previous fiscal year.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is also getting a slight boost to nearly $10 billion, up from the previous year’s spending level, to carry out Trump’s mass deportations.
Senate Democrats struggled to unify on how to vote for a House-passed continuing resolution despite Schumer’s initial opposition.
“Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on the House CR,” Schumer declared Wednesday.
But by Thursday, some Senate Democrats were voicing their opposition to Schumer’s defiance both publicly and privately.
“Any party should never shut the government down,” Fetterman told reporters Thursday, calling it “a gift for the Republicans” if Democrats block the House-passed bill.
“It wasn’t that long ago before we were lecturing that you can never shut the government down,” Fetterman continued, criticizing Schumer’s resistance. “So that’s kind of inconsistent.”
Gillibrand was reportedly heard “screaming” Thursday during a raucous meeting with her Democratic Senate colleagues on how to handle the CR vote.
The New York Democrat was yelling so loudly during the private lunch on Capitol Hill that her voice could be heard through the room’s “thick wood doors,” according to Fox News.
“She seems to be making the case against allowing the government to shut down,” Punchbowl News reporter Andrew Desiderio wrote on X, after eavesdropping on the tense meeting, which lasted for more than an hour.
Ahead of the procedural vote, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) pleaded with Democratic senators to defy Schumer and vote against the GOP-crafted measure.
“Donald Trump and Elon Musk have offered the Congress a false choice between a government shutdown or a blank check that makes a devastating assault on the well-being of working families across America,” Pelosi said in a statement.
“[T]his false choice that some are buying instead of fighting is unacceptable,” she added.
Before his flip-flop, Schumer had signaled support for a 30-day stopgap measure, introduced by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), that would allow Democratic and Republican negotiators to potentially hammer out a longer-term spending deal.
“Democratic senators should listen to the women,” Pelosi said, referring to the four-week funding extension proposed by Murray and DeLauro.
“Democrats must not buy into this false choice. We must fight back for a better way. Listen to the women, For The People,” the former House speaker concluded.
