Schumer says he will vote to advance GOP spending bill, lowering threat of shutdown

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) announced on the Senate floor Thursday that he plans to vote to advance a House-passed six-month government funding bill, despite the strong opposition of many Democrats who say the bill would create a “slush fund” for President Trump and Elon Musk.

“I will vote to keep the government open, and not shut it down,” Schumer said on the Senate floor.

Schumer is only the second Senate Democrat to state definitively his intention to vote to advance the GOP-written bill — joining Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.). But it’s highly likely he will give political cover to other Democrats to vote to advance the 99-page package.

He said there are a number of undecided votes in his caucus and that colleagues are reviewing the House bill carefully.

“As of [Wednesday] there were not enough votes to pass it, I thought I would let people know that. But there are a bunch of undecided votes and as members study it and look at it, each will make his or her own decision,” he later told reporters at a pen-and-pad briefing.

Still, his announcement didn’t immediately stem the tide of Democratic “no” votes.

Sen. Jon Ossoff (Ga.), who is considered the most vulnerable Senate Democratic incumbent, announced late Thursday evening that he would oppose the House bill.

He said the bill “guts NIH research into diseases like Alzheimer’s and maternal mortality, funding for the prevention of violence against women, and Army Corps of Engineers construction of water infrastructure.”

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), who won election to the Senate last year in a state that Trump carried, also announced late Thursday evening that she would vote against the House bill.

“I will be voting no on the continuing resolution tomorrow. First, because this bill is bad for Michigan. It makes significant cuts to Michigan’s key infrastructure projects,” she said. “But on top of that, my Republican colleagues offered no assurances that the money wouldn’t be redirected at the whip of Elon Musk,” she said.

It also followed similar pronouncements earlier in the day.

Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Ruben Gallego (R-Ariz.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) all also said they are against it, panning Republicans for their one-sided crafting of the bill and airing concerns that the bill allows Trump and Musk to continue running roughshod over the government.

“I cannot vote for the Republican plan to give unchecked power to Donald Trump and Elon Musk,” Kelly said in a statement. “I told Arizonans I’d stand up when it was right for our state and our country, and this is one of those moments.”

Schumer and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) still need to work out a time agreement for voting on the House funding package. Democrats want amendments to the bill, including a substitute proposal to fund the government for 30 days.

Congress must pass a funding measure by the end of Friday to avoid a shutdown.

Schumer said he agrees with Democratic colleagues who say the bill is a bad piece of legislation, but he warned that failure to pass it could trigger a far worse outcome: a government shutdown.

“While the CR bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse. For sure, the Republican bill is a terrible option. It is not a clean CR, it is deeply partisan. It doesn’t address far too many of this country’s needs, but I believe allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option,” he said on the floor.

Schumer argued that a shutdown would lead to the shuttering of regional Veterans Affairs offices, leaving veterans without crucial services, and could empower Trump to lay off more staff at the Social Security Administration, hurting seniors and people with disabilities.

The Democratic leader’s announcement on the Senate floor marks a dramatic turnaround from the day before, when he declared that the House GOP bill did not have enough votes to advance in the upper chamber and demanded a vote on a clean 30-day government funding stopgap sponsored by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.).

But Schumer on Thursday evening said the efforts to muster Republican votes for Murray’s proposal fell flat.

“Patty Murray worked extremely hard as did our Appropriations Committee members to get Republicans to go along with a 30-day bill so they could do what they really like to do, which is write a whole big appropriations bill, and they wouldn’t go along,” he told reporters

“That’s regrettable, very, very regrettable,” he said.

Schumer told Senate Democratic colleagues at a lunch meeting earlier Thursday that he would support a procedural motion known as cloture to advance the House-passed bill.

Senate Republicans control 53 seats and need eight Democratic votes to advance the House GOP-drafted continuing resolution to a final vote. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says he will vote against the measure because it doesn’t do enough to cut the deficit.

The legislation, which would increase defense spending by $6 billion and cut non-defense programs by $13 billion, needs 60 votes to advance to a final vote.

Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, called the House-passed funding bill “a dumpster fire.”

Schumer’s decision to support the House bill was met with immediate criticism from Democratic progressives, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.).

Ocasio-Cortez told CNN in an interview Thursday afternoon it would be a “tremendous mistake” for Schumer to vote to advance the House Republican funding resolution.

Asked about criticism of his decision, Schumer said, “The bottom line is you have to make these decisions based on what is best for not only your party, but your country,” he said.

“I firmly believe …  that I’ve made the right decision,” he said. “I believe that my members understand that I came to that conclusion and respect it. … People realize it’s a tough choice but realize I made the decision based on what I thought were the merits and I think they respect it.”

Updated at 9:58 p.m. Al Weaver contributed.

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