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government shutdown
'Keep Calling': Warnings of 'Head Fake' as Schumer Claims Dem Unity Against GOP Funding Bill
One observer warned that top Democrats are "trying to fool their own supporters" about their position on the Republican Party's government funding legislation.
Mar 13, 2025
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a floor speech Wednesday that Republicans don't have enough support from his caucus to advance their partisan six-month government funding legislation, which would inflict large cuts to non-military spending and bolster the Trump administration's assault on federal agencies.
But Schumer's claim of Democratic unity following tense private caucus meetings was soon called into question as some members suggested the minority party could still cut a deal with Republicans to invoke cloture on the legislation—a move that would pave the way for passage of the bill with a simple-majority vote.
"Everybody in the caucus wants an opportunity to vote for a clean 30-day [continuing resolution] that puts us on a pathway to regular, legit appropriations," said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), referring to an alternative government funding bill offered by Democratic appropriators ahead of the looming Friday shutdown.
"It's not an unreasonable ask to say, if you want cloture, you'd better give us a vote," Whitehouse added.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) similarly indicated that Democrats could be willing to help Republicans invoke cloture—which requires 60 votes—in exchange for votes on Democratic amendments.
If cloture is invoked, the GOP would no longer need Democratic support to push the bill through the Senate.
"Democrats had nothing to do with this bill," Kaine told reporters following a closed-door caucus meeting on Wednesday. "And we want an opportunity to get an amendment vote or two. So that's what we are insisting on to vote for cloture."
"Any Senate Dem who thinks their left flank, or anyone else in their base who is determined to stop Trump, would accept this strategy is deeply deluded."
Such remarks from Democrats led Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo to describe Schumer's floor speech as "a head fake."
"This is the Senate D caucus trying to fool their own supporters," Marshall argued. "Sorry to say that but that's what's happening."
In a blog post, Marshall wrote that "this was a deal between Schumer and [Senate Majority Leader John] Thune to allow a brief performative episode to throw Democratic voters off the scent while the Democratic caucus allowed the bill to pass."
"The deal is this: Democrats agree to give up the 60-vote threshold in exchange for being allowed to offer amendments to the House bill. The 'amendment' or 'amendments' will likely be some version of Sen. [Patty] Murray's 30-day CR. It doesn't even matter what they are. But this is all for show," he explained. "Once you give up the 60-vote threshold, the whole thing is over."
Progressive strategist Robert Cruickshank wrote late Wednesday that "any Senate Dem who thinks their left flank, or anyone else in their base who is determined to stop Trump, would accept this strategy is deeply deluded."
"This isn't even about left or right or center," Cruickshank wrote. "The divide within the Democratic Party is 'fight' versus 'surrender.'"
The new comments from Schumer and members of his caucus came amid a pressure campaign from House Democrats, grassroots organizers, advocacy groups, and the nation's largest union of federal workers urging senators to oppose the Republican funding bill, even if it means risking a government shutdown at the end of the week.
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which is engaged in legal fights against the Trump administration's large-scale attack on federal agencies,
wrote to senators on Wednesday that "a widespread government shutdown has been underway since January 20 and will continue to spread whether senators vote yes or no" on the Republican funding package.
"If H.R. 1968 becomes law—a measure that ignores the administration's brazen refusal to carry out duly enacted laws of Congress and further erodes Congress' power of the purse—AFGE knows that DOGE will dramatically expand its terminations of federal workers and double down on its campaign to make federal agencies fail because there will be nothing left to stop the administration for the balance of fiscal year 2025, if ever," the union wrote.
At least one Senate Democrat who was seen earlier Wednesday as a possible vote for the GOP, Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado, vowed later in the day to oppose both cloture and the Republican bill itself, a sign that public outrage could be having an impact.
"Keep calling. Keep up the pressure," Democratic strategist Matt McDermott wrote in response to the Colorado senator's opposition.
Senate Democrats are waking up: Hickenlooper said this morning he was leaning towards backing the CR. But at a town hall tonight he publicly commits to voting No — including on cloture. Keep calling. Keep up the pressure.
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— Matt McDermott ( @mattmfm.bsky.social) March 12, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who has been urging Democratic senators to oppose the Republican bill, wrote Wednesday night that "House Democrats have stayed in D.C. to pass a 30-day clean government funding extension."
"We are here to avert a shutdown and give Republicans the time they need to negotiate a bipartisan agreement," Ocasio-Cortez added. "I'm here in D.C. ready to vote on a clean CR, and so is everyone else. Let's do it."
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'Everyone Needs to Call Their Dem Senator Right Now' to Stop Republican Funding Disaster
"There is a very serious danger that Senate Democrats are on the verge of folding," said the leader of one progressive advocacy group.
Mar 12, 2025
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and grassroots organizers were among those urging Americans to call their Democratic senators on Wednesday and demand that they vote against a Republican funding bill that would bolster the Trump administration's assault on the federal government and working-class families.
"Everyone needs to call their Dem senator right now. They are starting to cave," Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) warned in a social media post, alluding to comments from some Senate Democrats indicating that they could support the government funding package that Republicans rammed through the House on Tuesday.
"It should be very clear to every Senate Democrat that any vote for cloture will also be considered a vote for the bill," she added, referring to the process of ending debate on legislation. According toPunchbowl, one unnamed Democratic senator suggested a group of Democrats could vote with Republicans to end debate, which would mean the bill needs just a simple majority—and only GOP votes—to pass.
"People aren't going to be tricked with procedural games," Ocasio-Cortez wrote. "They know exactly what is going on. Defend Medicaid. Vote NO on cloture. NO on bill."
People wanting to call their senators can use the United States Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121.
Democratic senators who are undecided on the funding package, according to one tally, include Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), and John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.).
Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who caucuses with the Democrats, has also not said which way he will vote, calling it a "very tough choice."
🚨 Everyone needs to call their Dem Senator right now. They are starting to cave. Tell them: 1. Vote NO on Cloture AND 2. Vote NO on the Republican spending bill. Don’t let them pivot to reconciliation. GOP doesn’t need Dem votes on that and they know it. TODAY is the showdown. 🤳🏽: (202) 224-3121
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@aoc.bsky.social) March 12, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Senate Republicans will likely need at least eight Democrats to support the six-month funding measure, which calls for $13 billion in cuts to non-military spending and a $6 billion increase in military outlays. Opponents of the bill say the package would effectively create a "slush fund" for President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk by giving them wide discretion on how the approved funding is spent, while also attacking critical programs.
"To be clear, this isn't a 'clean' continuing resolution that would keep the government open while they negotiate, it's a slush fund that gives Trump and Elon Musk even more power over federal spending. Instead of trying to rein in the Trump and Musk power grab, this CR legitimizes it," said the progressive advocacy group Indivisible, which is imploring Americans to call undecided Democratic senators immediately.
Leah Greenberg, the group's co-executive director, wrote on social media that she is "hearing from sources that there is a very serious danger that Senate Democrats are on the verge of folding on the MAGA CR & giving up their leverage on the budget."
"The whispers we're hearing that key votes might fold are a huge red flag," Greenberg wrote. "Call NOW."
Indivisible is specifically demanding that Senate Democrats "use their leverage"—the threat of a government shutdown—to secure a bill that both "rejects extreme funding cuts and MAGA poison pills attacking abortion rights, LGBTQ+ protections, and immigrant communities" and "includes real, ironclad protections to stop Trump and Musk from hijacking federal spending."
"Until Republicans agree to these terms, Democrats must not support anything beyond a clean, two-week continuing resolution—keeping the government open without giving Trump and Musk a blank check," the group said.
"Business as usual must not continue. We call on you to withhold all votes for any spending bill until this stops."
The government will shut down at midnight on Friday if Congress doesn't pass funding legislation. Democratic appropriators have introduced an alternative measure that would keep the government funded at current levels for another month to give Congress additional time to negotiate full-year spending bills, but it's unlikely that Republicans—who narrowly control both chambers—would support it.
But some Senate Democrats appear willing to back the Republican bill.
Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) has already committed to voting yes, and others have signaled that they're open to supporting it. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is reportedly taking a "neutral position" with his caucus, declining to advise members to vote one way or the other.
Citing an unnamed Senate aide, The Washington Postreported Wednesday that "some Democratic senators are 'furious' at Schumer for not having a strategy and message to counter the House Republican bill."
In a letter to Schumer and the rest of the Senate Democratic caucus on Wednesday, a coalition of nearly 150 advocacy groups urged the minority party to "stand strong in the fight to protect the federal government from an unprecedented assault."
"If Democrats do not stand up to Musk and Trump, they will continue to escalate their aggressive and illegal dismantling of key government functions, and they will keep illegally ignoring Congress," the groups wrote. "In light of this unprecedented assault on the government, business as usual must not continue. We call on you to withhold all votes for any spending bill until this stops."
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How the GOP Spending Bill Would 'Hand a Blank Check to Elon Musk'
One top Democrat called the seven-month continuing resolution a "power grab" that "further allows unchecked billionaire Elon Musk and President Trump to steal from the American people."
Mar 10, 2025
House Republicans this week are aiming to pass a seven-month government funding bill that Democrats said would effectively preempt any congressional effort to rein in billionaire Elon Musk as he works in concert with President Donald Trump to eviscerate federal agencies and fire government employees en masse.
The continuing resolution (CR), which would avert a looming shutdown and keep the government funded through September, calls for increasing military spending while cutting or declining to fund key programs involving rental assistance, public health, and other critical areas.
Politicoreported that the bill would boost military spending by roughly $6 billion and slash non-military funding by $13 billion.
"The bill, for instance, does not renew $40 million in fiscal 2024 funding for more than 70 programs that help children and families," the outlet noted. "Most had been requested by Democratic senators, but not all: Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith previously secured $250,000 for a group that works to prevent child abuse in her home state of Mississippi and GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski requested more than $5 million to help fund homeless shelters and prevent child abuse in Alaska."
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement that the legislation "is a power grab for the White House and further allows unchecked billionaire Elon Musk and President Trump to steal from the American people."
DeLauro continued:
By essentially closing the book on negotiations for full-year funding bills that help the middle class and protect our national security, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have handed their power to an unelected billionaire. Elon Musk and President Trump are stealing from the middle class, seniors, veterans, working people, small businesses, and farms to pay for tax breaks for billionaires and big corporations. They have made it harder for Americans to get their Social Security benefits; shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has saved American families $21 billion; fired 6,000 veterans and reportedly plan to make it harder for veterans to access benefits by firing an additional 80,000 VA employees; laid off hundreds of workers who build and maintain critical nuclear weapons; and shut down medical research labs. House Republicans' response: hand a blank check to Elon Musk.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, echoed DeLauro's criticism of the Republican bill, calling it a "slush fund continuing resolution that would give Donald Trump and Elon Musk more power over federal spending—and more power to pick winners and losers, which threatens families in blue and red states alike."
"Instead of turning the keys over to the Trump administration with this bill," said Murray, "Congress should immediately pass a short-term CR to prevent a shutdown and finish work on bipartisan funding bills that invest in families, keep America safe, and ensure our constituents have a say in how federal funding is spent."
In a fact sheet released over the weekend, Murray's office noted that full-year government funding bills typically provide "scores of specific funding directives for key programs and priorities" that constrain the executive branch.
But under the GOP continuing resolution, the fact sheet observes, "hundreds of those congressional directives fall away," giving the Trump administration broad discretion to "reshape spending priorities, eliminate longstanding programs, pick winners and losers, and more."
"Under this CR, the Trump administration could—for example—decide not to spend funding previously allocated for combatting fentanyl, the SUPPORT Act, and other substance abuse and mental health programs, or specific NIH priorities like Alzheimer's disease and vaccine research—and instead steer funding to other priorities of its choosing," the document states. "It could also pick and choose which Military Construction, Army Corps, or transit improvement and expansion projects to fund without direction from Congress."
A similar fact sheet released by DeLauro warns that the CR "provides a blank check to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the amount of $4 billion, enabling Elon Musk to direct contracts to Starlink and SpaceX (companies owned by Musk) at a time when unvetted and unchecked SpaceX employees have burrowed in the FAA (the same Federal agency that regulates SpaceX), with no requirement for public transparency, fair competition, or congressional approval."
"This continuing resolution is a blank check for Elon Musk and creates more flexibility for him to steal from the middle class, seniors, veterans, working people, small businesses, and farmers to pay for tax breaks for billionaires," said DeLauro.
The Republican bill is expected to get a House vote as soon as Tuesday evening. In a post to his social media platform on Saturday, Trump praised the CR as "very good" and demanded lockstep unity from his party, which has willfully ceded the power of the purse in the opening weeks of the president's second White House term.
Trump's call for "no dissent" from Republicans stems from the party's narrow majorities in the House and Senate. In the latter chamber, the bill will need at least seven Democratic votes to pass.
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