Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Wednesday that his party would oppose the spending bill that Republicans drafted and passed through the House, as the Friday midnight deadline looms for Congress to take action to avoid a government shutdown.
“Funding the government should be a bipartisan effort. But Republicans chose a partisan path, drafting their Continuing Resolution without any input from Congressional Democrats,” Schumer wrote on X, echoing comments he made on the Senate floor.
“Because of that, Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to pass the House CR,” he wrote. “Our caucus is unified on a clean 30-day CR that will keep the government open and give Congress time to negotiate bipartisan legislation that can pass. We should vote on that.”
Schumer called for a one-month spending bill to keep the government open until April 11 so that Democrats can better negotiate a deal. The continuing resolution, which passed through the House Tuesday on a nearly party-line vote of 217-213, would keep the government open for the next six months, for the rest of the fiscal year which ends Sept. 30.
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The minority leader addressed the Senate floor after a lunch meeting with Democratic senators on Wednesday, as some were reportedly concerned that a shutdown would be more grim for their party despite them broadly being against the CR.
“There are not the votes right now to pass it,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told reporters after the meeting, according to NBC News. “Democrats had nothing to do with this bill. And we want an opportunity to get an amendment vote or two. And so that’s what we are insisting on.”
“Quite frankly, both outcomes are bad,” Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., added, according to NBC. “Elections have consequences, but this is an extreme bill. If it passes, it will hurt a lot of ordinary people on the ground. If the government shuts down, that will hurt a lot of ordinary people on the ground, and so that is the dilemma in which we found ourselves.”
Warnock said the additional problem he has with the bill “is that I think it advances this project that we’re seeing come from the executive branch, this power grab that does not respect that the power of the purse is with the Congress.”
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., has not voiced whether he would support the bill in the upper chamber.
“I’m weighing the badness of each option,” Kelly said, acknowledging that supporting the six-month stopgap would set a bad precedent that Republicans can put together funding bills without Democrats involved in the negotiation process.
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., said he would support the continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown, while Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., said Democrats “are unified in not wanting to shut down the government” but should vote for a short-term bill.
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President Donald Trump supports the six-month continuing resolution so Republicans can focus their time early in his second term on advancing his agenda on the border and taxes.
The bill, which bolsters military spending while slashing non-defense domestic programs, needs 60 votes to avoid a filibuster. Republicans hold 53 Senate seats.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has indicated he will reject the continuing resolution, so the GOP needs at least eight Democrats to cross the aisle in order to avoid a filibuster.
Republicans argue it is too late to swap in a one-month bill, as the House is already on recess until March 24.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., signaled to reporters that he is open to having conversations with Democrats on adding potential amendments to the CR.
Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., torched Republicans for keeping Democrats from the negotiation table thus far.
“Republicans are in charge of the Senate, in charge of the House, and have the White House. The American people know who’s in charge,” he reportedly said. “It’s ridiculous for Republicans to try to blame the party that’s the minority everywhere.”
Politico reported that multiple White House sources say that Schumer will allow enough centrist Democrats to join Republicans in supporting the continuing resolution, despite his vocal opposition of the measure on the Senate floor Wednesday.
“They’re 100 percent gonna swallow it,” one White House official reportedly told the outlet. “They’re totally screwed.”
