The Senate on Friday voted 62-38 to end debate on a continuing resolution to fund the government through September, all but guaranteeing final passage of a GOP-crafted bill that would avoid a partial federal shutdown.
Nine Democrats and one nominal independent who caucuses with them helped push the Republican-backed bill over the finish line. Democrats crossing party lines were Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and fellow New York Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand; Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois; Sens. Gary Peters of Michigan, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire; and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, along with Sen. Angus King, I-Maine.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was the only Senate to vote “no.”
In the leadup to the cloture vote on the continuing resolution, Democrats such as Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., repeatedly flirted with the idea of choosing a shutdown over cooperating with the Republican-majority Congress, despite having criticized Republicans for opposing spending bills in the past.
The continuing resolution bill arose out of political necessity after Congress was unable to pass individual spending bills for the current year.
President Donald Trump had called on Congress to vote on the stopgap spending bill.
“The budget from last YEAR is still not done. We are working very hard with the House and Senate to pass a clean, temporary government funding Bill (‘CR’) to the end of September. Let’s get it done!” he wrote on Truth Social on Feb. 27.
Trump’s call for a stopgap measure to provide funding to the government came as the narrow Republican majorities in Congress faced the difficult task of agreeing on a budget resolution.
The effort to pass a CR through Sept. 30, the end of fiscal 2025, was complicated by Democrat demands that Republicans promise Trump would cease his cost-cutting actions.
Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., the ranking member on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said that she and her fellow Democrats would support the CR if guarantees were provided that Trump would not impound funding and would back off of Elon Musk’s anti-bureaucracy efforts.
Ultimately, the bill passed in the House along mostly partisan lines, with only one Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, voting for it.
From the outset, the situation in the Senate appeared to be much the same.
Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., who was once thought to be open to the CR, took to X and said he wouldn’t vote for it because of Trump’s frontal attack on the bureaucracy.
“This bill would wipe out congressional oversight, letting Trump cut and redirect funding however he wants,” said Hickenlooper.
But some Democrats, facing the harsh reality of the fact that their opposition could trigger a government shutdown, decided to support the CR.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who had previously said he would urge his members to vote against it, said in a speech Thursday that he would not block the CR.
“While the CR bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse,” said Schumer.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., asked shortly before the cloture vote why Schumer backed down, said, “It would be to commit suicide” if the Democrats triggered a shutdown.
Sen. John Fetterman, D-Penn., went a step further than Schumer, deciding to support the bill to avoid a shutdown, writing on X, “I disagree with many points in the CR, but I will never vote to shut our government down.”
Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., told The Daily Signal shortly before the cloture vote that she was confident Democrats would moderate their opposition to Trump in the future.
“I actually have great optimism the Democrats will get their land legs back under them. They always have. Right at the moment, they’re flailing a bit. But that won’t last,” said Lummis.
“They’ll pull it together, and they’ll either find ways to work with Republicans to get some of their policy priorities included, and if they don’t, this flailing with opposition instead of legislating will hurt them in the 2026 election cycle.“
This article has been updated since publication.
