Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer stepped Democrats away from the edge of a shutdown on Thursday — warning that repercussions of closing the federal government would be worse than the only viable alternative, passing the House GOP funding bill that many in Schumer’s party loathe.
Schumer’s remarks — made first during a closed-door lunch with his colleagues Thursday and then from the Senate floor in a lengthy speech — are a significant indication that enough Senate Democrats will vote to advance the House GOP bill and avoid a shutdown that would start after midnight Friday.
“It’s not really a decision. It’s a Hobson’s choice,” Schumer said on the floor. “Either proceed with the bill before us or risk Donald Trump throwing America into the chaos of a shutdown. This in my view is no choice at all. While the [House bill] is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse.”
Schumer’s floor speech came after he privately told fellow Democrats during a closed-door lunch Thursday that he would help advance a House GOP funding bill, according to three people granted anonymity to disclose his private remarks.
“I believe it is my job to make the best choice for the country, to minimize the harms to the American people. Therefore, I will vote to keep the government open and not shut it down,” Schumer said from the Senate floor. “There is nobody in the world, nobody, who wants to shut the government down more than Donald Trump and more than Elon Musk. We should not give it to them.”
The New York Democrat’s decision to come out against barreling into a shutdown comes as his party has spent days quietly agonizing over what to do after House Republicans passed their seven-month funding patch and then promptly left Washington, essentially forcing Democrats to accept a bill they don’t support and didn’t have a role in negotiating.
Schumer had said little publicly about the dilemma before his speech Thursday. But he ended up giving voice to the concerns of many in his caucus who believe that a shutdown would only empower President Donald Trump and his government-slashing ally Elon Musk. Schumer told reporters after his speech that he also warned his Democratic colleagues that there was no off-ramp from a shutdown once one started.
“A shutdown would give Donald Trump and Elon Musk carte blanche to destroy vital government services at a significantly faster rate than they can right now,” he said, saying it would be a “gift” for Trump that would let Republicans “weaponize their majorities to cherry-pick which parts of the government to reopen.”
Schumer’s remarks mark the beginning of the end for a weeks-long battle over funding the government. Senate Democrats mostly kept mum as they waited to see if Speaker Mike Johnson would be able to get the GOP funding bill across the finish line without help from House Democrats.
Once the bill passed the House, Senate Democrats were left in a pickle. They held several closed-door meetings this week but never coalesced around a unified strategy, with members openly acknowledging they were trying to choose between two bad options.
“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,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) after the Thursday lunch.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), like many of her colleagues, declined to answer questions from reporters as she left the lunch. But she was overheard warning her colleagues behind closed doors of “serious harm” and that “this will not be a normal shutdown.”
Still, a growing number of Senate Democrats vowed Thursday to oppose the House GOP bill, including not helping it get over 60-vote procedural hurdles. But some Democrats have floated that they could help advance the bill in exchange for a vote on their preferred alternative, a 30-day stopgap that would make room to restart bipartisan spending talks.
Neither Schumer nor Senate Majority Leader John Thune have indicated that they’ve reached an agreement on proceeding to a final vote. But a person granted anonymity to describe the state of negotiations said that discussions are ongoing. Thune told reporters shortly before Schumer spoke that he was willing to give Democrats a likely-to-fail vote on a four-week stopgap as part of a potential agreement.
Thune has scheduled a Friday vote to get the House-passed bill over an initial 60-vote procedural hurdle. Republicans are expected to need help from at least eight Democrats since Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has vowed to oppose the GOP bill.
Schumer indicated that he would not twist arms, stressing that each senator will come to their own decision about whether to help advance the GOP stopgap.
Lisa Kashinsky contributed to this report.
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