WASHINGTON – Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he will vote to advance the Republican funding extension and avoid a government shutdown at the end of the day Friday.
“While the CR bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse,” he said during a speech on the Senate floor Thursday. “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’s announcement significantly increases the chances that enough Democratic senators will side with Republicans to avoid a government shutdown, despite widespread frustration with the GOP plan among the conference. However, speaking to reporters after the speech, he would not say whether there were enough Democrats who planned to join him to stop a shutdown.
The threat of a shutdown has loomed as the American economy is teetering toward a recession and as Trump administration has made significant cuts to the federal workforce and frozen spending without Congress’ approval.
Schumer’s position is also sure to draw blowback from the left wing of the party, which has been pushing lawmakers to show they are willing to fight President Donald Trump’s efforts to remake the federal bureaucracy.
Schumer made the case on the Senate floor that a shutdown would allow the Trump administration and Republican lawmakers to “cherry pick which parts of the government to reopen,” giving them even more power over the federal government.
Schumer said he made that case to his fellow Democrats during their meeting earlier that day that Republicans could keep the government shut down “for months and months and months” if funding runs out Friday.
“If we go into a shutdown, and I told my caucus this, there’s no offramp,” he said. “How you stop a shutdown would be totally determined by the Republican House and Senate, and that is totally determined, because they’ve shown complete blind obeisance, by Trump.”
Earlier this week, Republicans in the House advanced a six-and-a-half month government funding extension that freezes spending at current levels but reallocates it to Trump’s priorities, such as border security and defense, and gives the administration more leeway to make spending decisions.
Then the House left town for a 10-day recess, ensuring any changes would bring logistical headaches if enough Democrats don’t give their support before the end of the day Friday, when federal agencies would need to begin furloughing staff and winding down to only essential operations.
Republicans control the Senate 53-47, but need Democratic help to get the spending bill across the finish line. Eight Democrats would have to join with their GOP colleagues to overcome the filibuster’s 60-vote threshold, as Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has already said he’ll vote against it.
It set up Democrats to choose between two options they despise: Accept a federal funding extension that empowers the president, or risk being blamed for shutting down the government and losing further control over government agencies.
Democrats have instead proposed a 28-day funding extension that they’ve argued will buy more time to strike a bipartisan deal. Republicans are not taking that offer seriously and daring Democrats to stand in the way of the current plan.
A shutdown would force a majority of federal workers to stop working and temporarily go without pay. Services deemed essential – such as border protection, air traffic control and power grid maintenance as well as payments for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid – would continue.
Other services would be interrupted. National parks would close, environmental and food inspections would stop, researchers at the National Institutes of Health would not be able to admit new patients, and Internal Revenue Service tax help may be interrupted, among other effects.
Which party would be blamed for a shutdown is unclear. A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday indicated a majority of voters would either blame Trump or congressional Republicans for a shutdown.
