Schumer
Will Clear the Way for G.O.P. Spending Bill, Breaking With His Party
Many
Democrats had agitated for the party to hang together and block the measure in
defiance of President Trump, but the leader said doing so would prompt a
shutdown that would only empower Mr. Trump.
Carl
HulseCatie Edmondson
By Carl
Hulse and Catie Edmondson
Reporting
from the Capitol
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/13/us/government-shutdown-senate-democrats.html
March 13,
2025
Senator
Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, broke with his party on
Thursday and lined up enough Democrats to advance a Republican-written bill to
keep federal funding flowing past a midnight Friday deadline, arguing that
Democrats could not allow a government shutdown that many of them have
demanded.
During a
private luncheon with Democrats, Mr. Schumer stunned many of his colleagues by
announcing that he planned to vote to allow the G.O.P. bill to move forward,
and indicated that he had enough votes to help Republicans break any filibuster
by his own party against the measure, according to attendees and people
familiar with the discussion.
It was a
turnabout from just a day earlier, when Mr. Schumer proclaimed that Democrats
were “unified” against the legislation, and a remarkable move at a time when
many of the party’s members in both chambers and progressive activists have
been agitating vocally for senators to block it in defiance of President Trump.
In a speech
hours later on the Senate floor, Mr. Schumer announced his plan to vote to move
forward with the Republican measure, which would fund the government through
Sept. 30. He argued that if Democrats stood in the way, it would lead to a
shutdown that would only further empower Mr. Trump and Elon Musk in their bid
to defund and dismantle federal programs.
“The
Republican bill is a terrible option,” Mr. Schumer said in his evening speech.
“It is deeply partisan. It doesn’t address far too many of this country’s
needs. But I believe allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a
government shutdown is a far worse option.”
In a
shutdown, Mr. Schumer said, “the Trump administration would have full authority
to deem whole agencies, programs and personnel nonessential, furloughing staff
with no promise that they would ever be rehired.”
He also
warned that if the government closed, Mr. Trump and Republicans would have no
incentive to reopen it, since they could selectively fund “their favorite
departments and agencies, while leaving other vital services that they don’t
like to languish.”
His
announcement came little more than 24 hours before a shutdown deadline. If
Congress fails to approve legislation extending federal funding, it will lapse
at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday.
In a meeting
with reporters after his remarks, Mr. Schumer declined to confirm that he had
sufficient Democratic votes to move the legislation past procedural hurdles,
saying that senators were making their own decisions. But other Democrats said
they were confident that he had the backing to push the measure forward.
Senate
Republicans are expected to need the support of at least eight Democrats to
steer around a filibuster. Other than Mr. Schumer, only one Democrat, Senator
John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, has said he will support the bill.
Mr. Schumer
has long seen responsibility for government shutdowns as a political albatross.
But many Democrats on Capitol Hill have refused to go along with the stopgap
spending measure, regarding it as their only leverage against Mr. Trump. All
but one House Democrat voted against the plan on Tuesday, and many of them,
along with their colleagues in the Senate, have spent the last few days
pressing to hold firm against it to challenge the president.
Representative
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York said on CNN that it would be a “mistake”
for Mr. Schumer not to block the bill.
“I hope that
individuals that are considering that reconsider it,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said.
“I genuinely do. I don’t think it’s what New Yorkers want.”
In lengthy
closed-door group discussions over the past three days, Senate Democrats have
agonized over how to handle the spending bill, which would keep government
funding largely flat over the next six months.
Many of them
described an impossible choice between two evils: supporting a bill that would
give the Trump administration wide latitude to continue its unilateral efforts
to slash government employees and programs, or a shutdown that would also give
Mr. Trump and his team broad leeway to decide what to fund.
Several
Democrats — including both centrists and progressives — declared that they
could not back legislation that would give that kind of power to the president
and Mr. Musk. They groused that Republicans had unilaterally drafted the
legislation and refused to consider any changes to win their votes, essentially
daring them to take the blame for a politically toxic shutdown.
“What
everyone is wrestling with is that either outcome is terrible,” said Senator
Martin Heinrich of New Mexico. “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.”
Thursday’s
session was particularly emotional, stretching on for two hours and at times
growing heated. At one point, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York could be
heard through closed doors shouting, “This will not be a normal shutdown!”
Senator Mark
Kelly of Arizona, who had widely been seen as one of the Democrats who might be
willing to join Republicans to overcome a filibuster, announced that he would
oppose the measure, adding that his decision was the most difficult call he had
made since he was elected five years ago.
“That is a
calculation I’ve been struggling with for days — weeks, in fact,” he said.
“It’s a tough call, and that’s why we spent a lot of time talking. That’s one
of the challenging things on either path: There’s a lot of unknowns out there.”
But he added
that Mr. Musk “had been wreaking havoc on our government,” and said that the
Republican-written bill, drafted in consultation with the White House, “is
designed to give him more influence, more power.”
“This is not
the way we should be funding the government,” Mr. Kelly said.
Republicans
sought to escalate the pressure on Democrats to relent and end the spending
fight, and warned on Thursday that the moment for making a decision was at
hand.
“As the
expression goes, it’s time for Democrats to fish or cut bait,” said Senator
John Thune, the South Dakota Republican and majority leader. “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.”
At the same
time, residents of the District of Columbia were protesting on Capitol Hill to
demand that Senate Democrats block a spending bill that would amount to a $1
billion budget cut for the District over the next six months. Crowds of
school-age children carried signs made with crayons and colored markers, one of
which read, “You cut my dad’s job and now you want to cut my school,”
punctuated by four sad faces.
Some
Democrats said they were still trying to assess whether the best approach to
reining in Mr. Trump was defeating the spending plan or allowing it to become
law.
“We are
intent on stymying and stopping the slide toward Trump’s tyrannical and
autocratic power, which is happening in real time and inflicting harm on real
people,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, who said he
would vote to block the spending bill. “I’m respectful of my colleagues who
have a different opinion with the same goal, which is to prevent unchecked and
unbridled dictatorial power for President Trump and Elon Musk.”
Carl Hulse
is the chief Washington correspondent, primarily writing about Congress and
national political races and issues. He has nearly four decades of experience
reporting in the nation’s capital. More about Carl Hulse
Catie
Edmondson covers Congress for The Times. More about Catie Edmondson
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