Divisions within the Democratic party were on display on Thursday after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer indicated that he would vote to advance a Republican-led stopgap bill, after previously saying he wouldn’t. The bill ultimately passed Friday evening with a final vote 54-46.
Why It Matters
Democrats are facing intense pressure to push back against the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an unofficial department created by executive order and nominally led by billionaire Trump ally Elon Musk, which has been gutting long-established federal agencies and removing thousands of government employees from their positions.
Republicans hold a 53-47 seat majority in the Senate but need 60 votes to proceed with their proposed funding bill, which only needed a simple majority to pass through the House of Representatives. Eight Democrats would need to cross the aisle to support the bill, and several have already made clear they won’t vote for the bill.
What To Know
On the Senate floor on Thursday, Schumer said he would vote to advance the continuing resolution (CR) bill when it comes up for a vote on Friday.
“I believe it is my job to make the best choice for the country to minimize the harms to the American people. Therefore, I will vote to keep the government open and not shut it down,” he said.
“Trump has taken a blowtorch to our country and wielded chaos like a weapon. For Donald Trump, a shutdown would be a gift. It would be the best distraction he could ask for from his awful agenda.”
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
Schumer’s support for the stopgap bill means backing a budget that fails to include any restrictions on Trump and Musk’s efforts to dismantle federal agencies and overhaul government operations.
This move marks a significant concession from Schumer, who reversed his stance just one day after promising that Democrats would block the GOP measure. As a result, the bill is now poised to secure enough votes to clear the 60-vote threshold and ultimately pass with a simple majority.
It comes after the Republican-backed government funding bill recently passed in the House after a week-long pressure campaign from Trump and his inner circle to convince undecided Republicans to vote for the bill.
The House Freedom Caucus—a group of about 30 Republican members of Congress regarded as the party’s most conservative faction—released its own budget resolution back in February which featured drastic spending cuts, higher border security funding and a marked increase in the debt ceiling.
Trump and his top aides reportedly called undecided GOP representatives and held meetings at the White House with House Freedom Caucus members in order to get the bill passed. Representative Kat Cammack of Florida, one of the Republicans who was on the fence Tuesday morning, told NBC she voted for the bill after she visited the White House earlier in the day.
In the end, the bill passed in the House by 217-213 votes, with all Republicans but Thomas Massie of Kentucky supporting the legislation. One Democrat, Jared Golden of Maine, voted for it.
That was a blow to House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, who had been banking on divisions within the House Republican party in order to gain leverage against the bill. House Democrats now say they feel betrayed by Schumer’s remarks.
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“There were many battleground Dems in the House … that were uncomfortable, semi-uncomfortable, with the vote,” one House Democrat told Axios. “The Senate left the House at the altar.”
Representative Becca Balint of Vermont argued that Senate Democrats needed to take a stronger stance, saying: “I know I speak for so many in our caucus when I say Schumer is misreading this moment. The Senate Dems must show strength and grit by voting no.”
Representative Steve Cohen of Tennessee echoed that frustration, telling Axios: “I don’t know where Schumer is coming from…It doesn’t look good for the leader.”
Meanwhile, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York called Schumer’s decision a “mistake” and urged Democrats to “reconsider” supporting the bill.
“This is about deep cuts to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid… the evisceration of the federal government… codifying the looting that is happening at the behest of Elon Musk in order to pay for his tax breaks for billionaires,” Ocasio-Cortez also told reporters, adding, “I think there is a deep sense of outrage and betrayal.”
Other House Democrats, including Representatives Jim McGovern of Massachusetts and Ro Khanna of California, also condemned the decision. Khanna labeled the Democratic reluctance to challenge Trump’s authority as “craven.”
At a private Democratic retreat, Jeffries did not address Schumer’s remarks directly, but reassured his caucus, telling members they could be proud of their stance.
“We stood up against Donald Trump. We stood up against Elon Musk. We stood up against the extreme MAGA Republicans,” Jeffries said. “We can defend that vote because we stood on the side of the American people.”
Amid the tension within the party, Senate Democrats are now facing a predicament — let Trump’s stopgap bill go through or face the blame for a government shut down.
“We are in a perverse, bizarro land where we’re having to decide between letting Donald Trump wreck the government this way or wreck the government that way,” Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, a Democrat, told CNN.
“What everyone is wrestling with is that either outcome is terrible,” Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico added in an interview with the New York Times. “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 said Thursday that Democrats would be to blame if government funding runs out this week, saying: “They do a shutdown, and, ultimately, that might lead to very, very high taxes because we’re talking about a shutdown.”
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Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Thursday urged Democrats to take a clear stance on the House-passed funding bill, stating they must choose between supporting the legislation or causing a government shutdown. He accused Democrats of leaning toward shutting it down rather than accepting the GOP-backed measure.
“It’s time for Democrats to fish or cut bait,” Thune said on the Senate floor Thursday morning. “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. So far, it looks like they plan to shut it down.”
Nonetheless some Democrats in the Senate have said they are still planning to vote against the bill, including Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey, who said in a post on X: “I don’t want a shutdown but I can’t vote for this overreach of power, giving Trump and Musk unchecked power to line their pockets.”
Senators Mark Warner of Virginia and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland also said that they were voting against the short-term spending bill in videos posted to social media. Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona also plans to vote against the continuing resolution.
“I cannot vote for the Republican plan to give unchecked power to Donald Trump and Elon Musk,” Kelly wrote on X. “I told Arizonans I’d stand up when it was right for our state and our country, and this is one of those moments.”
Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said she would vote against the bill because it would give Trump and Musk “a blank check to spend your taxpayer money however they want.”
Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania did not say how he was voting, but he told Fox News: “Any party should never shut the government down.” He added that it would be “a gift for the Republicans” for Democrats to block the House-passed CR. “In fact, if anything, I think, they’re effectively daring us to do that,” he said.
The stopgap bill proposes cutting government spending by $7 billion compared to last year. To achieve this, it reduces funding for non-defense programs by $13 billion while increasing defense spending by $6 billion.
This funding bill also only covers discretionary spending, which makes up about one-third of the federal government’s $6.75 trillion annual budget. The bill does not affect mandatory spending programs like Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid, which are the government’s largest expenses and contributed 40 percent of last year’s spending increase.
Critics say, however, that the stopgap bill does not affect long-term funding challenges for these programs. There are also fears that the lack of restrictions of cuts to discretionary spending means the stopgap bill could allow the Trump administration to cut administrative expenses at the agencies responsible for Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
What People Are Saying
Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor: “I believe it is my job to make the best choice for the country to minimize the harms to the American people. Therefore, I will vote to keep the government open and not shut it down.
“Trump has taken a blowtorch to our country and wielded chaos like a weapon. For Donald Trump, a shutdown would be a gift. It would be the best distraction he could ask for from his awful agenda.”
Thomas Gift, an associate professor of political science and the director of the Centre on U.S. Politics at University College London, told Newsweek: “Democrats clearly aren’t in agreement about how to confront Trump. Half the party wants to go into full-on resistance mode. Half the party is fearful of looking obstructionist and hypocritical for engaging in the same kind of brinkmanship they’d accused Republicans of under Joe Biden. The problem is that Schumer had no good options. But the worst possible outcome would be for Democrats to be held responsible for shutting down the government. At the same time, Schumer supporting the stopgap bill will only increase turmoil within the Democrat party, and make its members look more befuddled about how to deal with the Trump White House.”
What Happens Next
The Senate passed the stopgap bill, ultimately averting a government shutdown.
Update 3/14/25 6:23 p.m. ET: This article was updated to include Friday night’s vote.
Correction 03/14/25 6:43 p.m. ET: Hakeem Jeffries’s name was previously spelled Hakeen.
