A disastrous shutdown for Democrats got worse Sunday when Senate Democrats folded on government funding while receiving nothing of substance in return.
Eight Senate Democrats voted with 52 Republicans Sunday night on a procedural vote to allow a continuing resolution (CR) funding the government to advance.
The motion passed 60 to 40, without a single vote to spare, and will enable a future vote on a clean continuing resolution through January 30, 2026, packaged with three relatively non-controversial appropriations bills extending through the fiscal year: agriculture, military construction-Veterans Affairs, and legislative branch.
The agreement includes back pay for federal employees and guarantees that the 4,000-plus federal employees laid off during the shutdown will be rehired, as well as a blanket prohibition on future reductions in force through January 30. Those jobs are a drop in the bucket compared to the 250,000 or so the Trump administration eliminated before the shutdown.
Most significantly, the agreement does not guarantee an extension of Covid-era enhanced Obamacare premium subsidies, with Democrats only receiving assurances of a vote on a bill of their choice.
“As I have said for weeks to my Democrat friends, I will schedule a vote on their proposal, and I have committed to having that vote no later than the second week in December,” Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said on the Senate floor before the vote.
Even if such a bill were to pass the Senate, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has not committed to bringing it to the floor of the House.
The result is that Democrats once again overpromised results to their base but came up empty-handed, inflicting forty days of pain for nothing of substance.
Democrat Sens. Maggie Hassan (NH), Jeanne Shaheen (NH), Dick Durbin (IL), Jacky Rosen (NV), and Tim Kaine (D-VA) supported the procedural vote. They joined Sens. Catherine Cortez-Masto (D-NM), Angus King (I-ME), and John Fetterman (D-PA), who had previously voted to allow the House-passed CR to advance.
Republican Sen. Rand Paul (KY) voted no, as he has done throughout prior rounds of votes.
The result is another victory for Thune, who kept the Senate in session over the weekend to seek a deal, promising to keep senators working until a deal was struck.
Perhaps more significantly, the vote is the latest — and most damaging — setback for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY). His own rank-and-file members — centrists and the most liberal — condemned his shutdown strategy Sunday night.
Schumer is increasingly becoming the primary villain for the ascendant left inside the Democratic Party, and his hold on the position of Minority Leader seems increasingly tenuous.
In a sign of how toxic the shutdown end will be for Democrats, no Democrat senators who voted Sunday to begin the process of reopening the government are up for reelection in 2026.
Cortez-Masto, Fetterman, and Hassan will not have to run again until 2028, with Kaine, Rosen, and King not up again until 2030. Shaheen and Durbin are retiring.
Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), the most endangered Democrat incumbent, voted no.
The vote was held open for well over an additional hour to allow Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who was in Texas during a brutal three-way primary fight, to arrive in Washington.
The Senate must receive unanimous consent on time agreements to enable speedy passage, but a vote on final passage is likely by the middle of the week. The amended bill must then pass the House.
Bradley Jaye is Deputy Political Editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter and Instagram @BradleyAJaye.
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