By Brendan Scanland
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Friday evening, the Senate voted 54-46 to pass a short-term spending bill, known as a continuing resolution (CR), to keep the government funded through September.
The House passed the Republican CR on Tuesday. All but one House Democrat voted against the bill.
Friday, ten Senate Democrats joined all but one Republican Senator to surpass a key procedural hurdle to advance the spending measure. However, only two of them voted yes on final passage.
Leading up to Friday’s vote, Senate Democrats found themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place, essentially forced to “choose the lesser of two evils.” The first option to pass the CR gives President Donald Trump more discretion over spending decisions. Their second choice, which ultimately did not happen, was to allow a partial shutdown, which would’ve brought its own set of consequences.
More Democrats opened up to supporting the continuing resolution after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D- NY) signaled Thursday he would support advancing the measure, even though it was, in his words, “very bad.”
“I will vote to keep the government open. I believe it is the best way to minimize the harm that the Trump administration will do to the American people,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D- NY).
A partial shutdown would have furloughed over two million government workers and given the executive branch more authority, something Schumer urged against when announcing his decision to support the bill’s advancement to a final vote.
“As bad as the C.R. is, I believe allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option,” said Leader Schumer. “A shutdown would allow DOGE to shift into overdrive. Donald Trump and Elon Musk would be free to destroy vital government services at a much faster rate than they can right now. And over a much broader field of destruction that they would render.”
However, many Democrats disagreed with Schumer’s decision, especially those in the House. Democrats wanted to see more guardrails on Elon Musk’s ability to downsize the government without Congressional approval. Some Democrats also raised concerns with military spending increases and cuts to non-defense domestic programs.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D- NY) said Thursday she wanted to see a 30-day CR to give appropriators more time to negotiate.
“We want a 30-day continuing resolution to allow for the appropriations process to actually work so that Democrats and Republicans can come together to come up with a spending bill that we can all support,” said Sen. Gillibrand. “We want to show the Republican leadership that they can’t continually ignore the minority and that it is wrong for them to try to have their way or the highway. It’s not what the American people ask for.”
Throughout the week, House Democratic leaders openly expressed their opposition to the bill.
“It is a false choice that Donald Trump, Elon Musk and House Republicans have been presenting between their reckless and partisan spending bill and a government shutdown,” said House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D- NY) on Friday.
On Friday, 66 House Democrats sent a letter to Leader Schumer expressing their “strong opposition” to any Senate Democrats backing the Republican CR.
