Congress averted a government shutdown on Friday as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer caved to Republicans and publicly broke with many members of his own party to avoid a filibuster on a continuing resolution that funds the government through September. The fiasco became the latest setback for a Democrat Party that appears divided and rudderless nearly two months into President Donald Trump’s second term.
The House passed the funding bill last Tuesday on a near party-line vote. Democrat Jared Golden of Maine crossed the aisle to vote for the measure, while Thomas Massie of Kentucky was the sole Republican to oppose it.
Things appeared dicier in the Senate, where bills typically need to reach a 60-vote threshold to pass. Multiple Senate Democrats came out strongly opposed to the bill, in effect stating that they would rather send the government into a shutdown than pass it.
But it quickly became clear that blocking the bill would be a political disaster for Democrats. Even if the government went into a shutdown, there was no real path for Democrats to extract any concessions from Republicans, as the GOP controls both the House and the Senate.
Senate Democrats had no cards to play, and Schumer knew it. In an op-ed for The New York Times, Schumer argued that Democrats face “a difficult decision: Either proceed with the bill before us or risk Mr. Trump throwing America into the chaos of a shutdown.”
“Congratulations to Chuck Schumer for doing the right thing — Took ‘guts’ and courage!” President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social following Schumer’s announcement that he would not move to filibuster the bill. “The big Tax Cuts, L.A. fire fix, Debt Ceiling Bill, and so much more is coming. We should all work together on that very dangerous situation.”
The funding bill reduces overall spending from the previous fiscal year while increasing spending by $6 billion for veterans healthcare as well as for defense spending and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) funding. The bill decreases non-defense spending by $13 billion.
Trump signed the funding bill into law shortly after the Senate passed it.
Schumer’s decision to support the motion to invoke cloture (thereby avoiding a filibuster) on the GOP bill highlighted deepening divisions within the Democrat caucus. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries released a statement Thursday blasting Schumer’s support for the bill. “House Democrats will not be complicit,” Jeffries wrote. “We remain strongly opposed to the partisan spending bill under consideration in the Senate.”
Notably, Jeffries refused multiple times to say whether he has confidence in Schumer during media appearances. When asked if Senate Democrats need a new leader, Jeffries responded “next question.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also had harsh words for the Senate Democrats who aligned with Republicans to invoke cloture and ultimately pass the bill.
“Just to see Senate Democrats even consider acquiescing to Elon Musk, I think is a huge slap in the face,” she said. “And I think there is a wide sense of betrayal if things proceed as currently planned.”
CNN reported that some House Democrats are urging Ocasio-Cortez to run against Schumer for his Senate seat in 2028.
As multiple commentators online were quick to point out, Ocasio-Cortez and other Democrats have long blasted the filibuster as a “relic of Jim Crow” while also insisting that “nobody wins” in a government shutdown. Yet, in this case, a majority of congressional Democrats were calling on senators to use the filibuster to start a government shutdown.
While Schumer might be commended for acknowledging the political reality before him, it remains puzzling why he chose to allow his members to publicly call for a shutdown for days before ultimately announcing that he would support allowing the bill to pass.
Once again, President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have outmaneuvered Democrats. They have now put themselves in a prime position to pass a major funding bill enacting all of Trump’s legislative priorities later this year.
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