The Senate, located in Washington, has successfully pushed through a stopgap measure, led by Republicans, with the primary aim of ensuring the government remains funded. This action has occurred just before the midnight deadline on Friday. The days preceding this event were marked by unease among Senate Democrats, who were confronted with a difficult decision: either they allow the GOP bill to pass or risk a government shutdown.
The bill was ratified by the Senate in a vote of 54 to 46. One Republican voiced opposition against the bill, while two Democrats, in a surprising turn of events, supported it. This surprising support came after 10 Democrats provided the necessary votes earlier on Friday to overcome a crucial procedural hurdle. Following the Senate’s approval, the funding bill is now on its way to the desk of President Trump, awaiting his signature.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had initially signaled that his caucus would resist the partisan measure to keep the government funded until September. Yet, on Thursday, he reluctantly pledged to help advance it. In doing so, he delivered one of the Democratic votes necessary to propel the bill to passage. He noted his concern about the larger threat a shutdown would pose for the American people.
Schumer, a Democrat from New York, described the Republican bill as a “terrible option.” He criticized the bill for being “deeply partisan” and argued that “it doesn’t address far too many of this country’s needs.” Despite these criticisms, he expressed his belief that allowing Donald Trump to gain even more power through a government shutdown would be an even worse option.
On Thursday night, after making these remarks, Schumer refrained from commenting on whether other Democrats would join him in voting to advance the measure. Instead, he told reporters that each Democrat would make their own decision. However, Schumer’s support for the continuing resolution (CR) offered other Democrats political cover to do the same, thus diminishing the threat of a shutdown.
In the end, Schumer was joined by Democratic Senators Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Dick Durbin of Illinois, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Gary Peters of Michigan, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, and Angus King, an independent from Maine who caucuses with the Democrats. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky held the distinction of being the sole Republican to oppose advancing the measure, and he also voted against it during the final passage. Senators Shaheen and King, on the other hand, voted in favor of the final passage.
Earlier on Tuesday, the House passed the measure, which proposes an increase in defense spending while decreasing non-defense spending below 2024 levels. Republicans have praised the additional funding in the measure for programs such as nutrition assistance for women, infants, and children. However, Democrats have voiced strong opposition to the proposed cuts to medical research and housing programs. They have also criticized the more than $1 billion in cuts to D.C.’s local government spending. The Senate, following the vote to keep the government funded, also voted to reverse these cuts. However, the House still needs to take up the measure.
Only one House Democrat joined the Republican majority in support of the measure. While the House only requires a simple majority, the Senate requires a 60-vote threshold to invoke cloture and advance most measures. Therefore, the support of Democrats was crucial for the measure to pass.
Despite this, the Democratic Party was divided on how to proceed. Many Democrats expressed opposition to the House-passed measure and conveyed their frustration with the spending reductions. They warned that the measure would give the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency even more latitude to carry out cost-slashing efforts.
Democrats had been advocating for a 30-day continuing resolution, but this had little chance of securing enough support for passage. With the House already adjourned, this option would almost certainly have led to a lapse in funding. However, some progressives suggested that the shorter option was more favorable. They argued that letting the onus for a government shutdown fall on the Republicans would further highlight the chaos that has ensued in the federal bureaucracy and beyond under the Trump administration and DOGE.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke to reporters on Thursday night, expressing her disappointment with Schumer’s decision to support the continuing resolution. She described it as a “huge slap in the face” and mentioned a “wide sense of betrayal” within the party. She further explained, “What voting for the CR does is that it codifies the chaos and the reckless cuts that Elon Musk has been pursuing. The robbing of our federal government in order to finance tax cuts for billionaires, is what is happening, and that is what Senate Democrats will be empowering if they vote for the CR.”
Following his floor remarks, Schumer spoke to reporters, asserting that Democrats should focus their attention on their message, that Republicans are hurting the middle class, rather than on what the Trump administration could pursue during a shutdown. Schumer expressed that this message is “beginning to work.”
President Trump congratulated Schumer on Friday morning for “doing the right thing,” stating in a post on Truth Social that it required “courage.”
Schumer first informed Senate Democrats of his decision to vote to advance the GOP funding measure during a closed-door meeting on Thursday afternoon. As the meeting concluded, frustrations among Senate Democrats appeared high. Many of them, including those from battleground states, quickly released statements on social media announcing their intention to vote “no” on the House-passed continuing resolution.
Apart from Schumer, only Senator John Fetterman, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, had pledged to support the continuing resolution heading into Friday. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada became the third Democrat to pledge to support the measure to avert a shutdown before the vote.
On Friday morning, Democrats continued to express their dissatisfaction with their options. Senator Patty Murray, the top Democratic appropriator who had been involved in bipartisan talks to fund the government, described the choice between a shutdown and allowing the GOP bill to pass as “a false choice.” She accused Republicans of pulling out of bipartisan negotiations and sending “a deeply partisan bill here to the Senate today.”
She stated, “Democrats did not have an ounce of input into writing this bill. In my time in Congress, never, ever has one party written partisan full-year appropriations bills for all of government and expected the other party to go along without any input.”
Murray suggested that the Senate could still pass the short-term funding measure that she introduced earlier in the week. She said House Republicans could return and vote on it.
In the meantime, House Democratic leaders returned to the Capitol on Friday to voice their opposition to the continuing resolution. They described this as an “unprecedented situation and an unprecedented disaster” for the American people.
“We’ve been very clear: we strongly oppose the reckless Republican spending bill,” stated House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
This report was contributed to by Jaala Brown.
This news article was written by Kaia Hubbard, a politics reporter for CBS News Digital, based in Washington, D.C.
