Senate Democrats say they are not eager to shut down the government but believe voting against a Republican stopgap bill is their only way to stand up to President Trump and his cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency.
A day away from Friday’s deadline to keep the government open, Democrats remain almost universally opposed to the GOP stopgap spending bill that passed the House on Tuesday.
They say that supporting the stopgap — which continues current funding levels through September, with a handful of exceptions — would just enable Mr. Trump and DOGE to further ignore congressional spending directives as they slash the government bureaucracy.
If Democrats don’t provide enough votes to clear a filibuster, the government will shut down after midnight Friday, save for services that the Trump administration deems essential.
“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,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich, New Mexico Democrat. “So people are wrestling with what is the least worst outcome.”
He was one of several Democrats who decided a shutdown is not any worse than the chaos Mr. Trump and DOGE are inflicting across the government.
“I think when you confront a bully, you have to confront a bully,” Mr. Heinrich said.
So far the only Democrat who has come to a different conclusion, at least publicly, is Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, who says he “will never vote to shut the government down.”
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer was mum about his party’s plans on Thursday, after saying the day before that Republicans would not have enough votes to overcome a filibuster on their bill because they didn’t include Democrats in drafting it.
Republicans have already started a social media campaign attacking Democrats for the “Schumer shutdown.”
The GOP bill is the third government funding stopgap, known as a continuing resolution or CR, for the fiscal year that started Oct. 1. This latest CR would extend most fiscal 2024 spending levels and policies through the end of fiscal 2025 on Sept. 30.
The measure includes some exceptions to the flat funding, like $13 billion in cuts to nondefense spending on projects lawmakers requested for their districts, increases of $6 billion each for defense spending and veterans’ health care and a roughly half a billion-dollar bump for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has been running low on funding for detention and deportation of illegal immigrants.
Senate Democrats prefer a shorter, one-month CR through April 11, which they believe would buy enough time to finish bipartisan negotiations on new spending levels and policies and pass fiscal 2025 appropriation bills. Appropriators were close to a “top-line” deal on spending levels but negotiations stalled over Democrats’ demands to include language restricting the president from ignoring congressional spending directives.
“We’re this close to getting a bipartisan bill, so why wouldn’t we do that?” Sen. Raphael Warnock, Georgia Democrat, told The Washington Times.
The Senate’s initial procedural test vote on the House-passed CR through September would occur Friday morning, unless all 100 senators agree to speed things up.
Senate Republicans have a 53-seat majority but need 60 votes to clear a filibuster. Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul is opposed to the measure, which means they need help from at least eight Democrats to avoid a government shutdown.
Democrats had mulled providing enough votes to clear a filibuster in exchange for a vote on an amendment to supplant the GOP CR with their one-month version. But that idea appeared to fizzle out late in the day Thursday as more and more Democrats said they would not help to end a filibuster.
That includes Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Mark R. Warner of Virginia, who represent scores of government workers who would be furloughed under a shutdown.
Ms. Alsobrooks said the GOP stopgap would enable Mr. Trump to continue a “witch hunt against our patriotic civil servants — people who work on behalf of our veterans, people who work on behalf of our students, people who work on behalf of our domestic violence survivors.”
“We have a unique opportunity at this moment to course correct and pass a clean, bipartisan funding bill that would address some of these concerns and mistakes,” she said.
Other Democrats who say they won’t help pass the GOP stopgap bill include senators from states Mr. Trump won in the presidential election, such as Sens. Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly of Arizona.
“I told Arizonans I’d stand up when it was right for our state and our country, and this is one of those moments,” Mr. Kelly said.
Mr. Gallego, one of the few Democrats willing to speak with reporters after their caucus strategized over lunch on Thursday, preemptively tried to shift blame to the other party.
“Donald Trump and the Republicans shut down the government,” he said.
Republicans said there’s no way that narrative will fly when they’re providing near universal support for keeping the government open.
“Good luck,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican.
Mr. Trump blamed Democrats, saying they want to slow down work on other aspects of his agenda, like sweeping tax cuts.
“If there’s a shutdown, it’s only going to be on the Democrats,” he said.
