On Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) declared that he will not vote against moving forward with a Republican-backed stopgap bill to avert a partial government shutdown at the end of the week.
The announcement, in which Schumer criticized President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) effort led by Elon Musk, marked an abrupt turnaround. Just one day ago, the top Senate Democrat insisted the Republican majority did not have enough votes for the House-passed continuing resolution to clear a key procedural hurdle.
“While the CR bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse. … Allowing Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option,” Schumer said in remarks on the Senate floor.
He added later: “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.”
.@SenSchumer (D-NY): “While the CR bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse … Therefore, I will vote to keep the government open and not shut it down.” pic.twitter.com/1IkuJqOObr
— CSPAN (@cspan) March 13, 2025
The Senate needs three-fifths majority — or 60 votes — to invoke cloture and overcome a filibuster on the GOP’s six-month continuing resolution. Because Republicans have a 53-47 majority, they cannot clear that threshold without some kind of bipartisan agreement. The spending legislation will need only a simple majority to prevail in a final vote.
A partial government shutdown, in which non-essential federal employees will be furloughed, is set to begin at the end of Friday if a funding bill is not passed in time. It was only months ago, in December, that lawmakers resorted to the last continuing resolution that extended funding through mid-March.
The Democrat leader’s statement came after a Senate Democrat meeting in which reporters said they could hear Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) shouting about a shutdown. It was not immediately clear how many Democrats or independents will now join Schumer, though his opposition to a shutdown signals better odds for the Republican counting resolution.
Some Democrats already released statements claiming they would resist the GOP plan. Prior to Schumer, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) was the sole Democrat to openly state that he would not support blocking the Republican stopgap bill.
“The weeks of performative ‘resistance’ from those in my party were limited to undignified antics,” Fetterman said on X. “Voting to shut the government down will punish millions or risk a recession. I disagree with many points in the CR, but I will never vote to shut our government down.”
One Republican — Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) — signaled that he will vote against the bill. However, that does not necessarily mean he would oppose breaking the filibuster.
“Despite [DOGE’s] findings of loony left-wing USAID programs, the Republican spending bill continues to fund the very foreign aid [Musk] proposes to cut! The bill continues spending at the inflated pandemic levels and will add $2T to the debt this year,” Paul said in a post on X. “Count me as a hell no!”
The GOP-led House passed a 99-page continuing resolution, which provides funds to various federal agencies and programs through September 30, via a 217-213 vote on Tuesday. All but one Republican and a single Democrat — Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) — supported the measure. The rest of the Democrats and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) opposed the bill.
Republicans soon began warning of a “Schumer Shutdown” after the minority leader declared the Senate majority lacked the votes necessary to break the filibuster on the GOP’s continuing resolution. Schumer argued the upper chamber should instead take up a one-month funding patch being offered by the Democrats.
“Funding the government should be a bipartisan effort but Republicans chose a partisan path drafting their continuing without any input — any input — from congressional Democrats,” Schumer said on Wednesday.
“Because of that, Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on the House CR. Our caucus is unified on a clean April 11 CR that will keep the government open and give Congress time to negotiate bipartisan legislation that can pass,” he added. “We should vote on that.”
Trump has endorsed the House-passed continuing resolution as a means to keep the government running and later get to his domestic agenda priorities in national defense, border security, and tax cuts.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) reportedly said earlier in the day that he was open to allowing a vote on the 30-day stopgap proposal as an amendment to placate Democrats, although it was not clear as of press time if that will happen. “We’re waiting to decide what they want to do,” he said, according to Punchbowl News reporter Max Cohen.
