Senate Chuck Schumer at the US Capitol on Friday. Schumer and a small group of Democrats joined the Republicans in helping pass the stop-gap spending measure
Senate Chuck Schumer at the US Capitol on Friday. Schumer and a small group of Democrats joined the Republicans in helping pass the stop-gap spending measure
The Senate on Friday narrowly averted a government shutdown at midnight, passing a Republican-written stop-gap spending measure after Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, and a small group of Democrats joined Republicans in allowing it to advance.
The final vote to pass the spending measure, which would fund the government till September 30, and send it to President Trump was 54 to 46, nearly along party lines. But the key vote came earlier, when after days of Democratic agonising, Schumer and nine other members of his caucus supplied the votes needed to allow it to move ahead, effectively thwarting a filibuster by their own party in a bid to prevent a shutdown.
The action came just hours before a midnight deadline to avoid a lapse in funding.
The spending debate inflamed intra-party tensions among Democrats that have simmered for weeks about how to mount the most effective resistance to Trump at a time when he is taking full advantage of his governing trifecta — control of the White House, Senate and House — to trample on congressional power, slashing federal funding and firing government workers with little regard for the guardrails that normally constrain the executive branch.
Schumer’s abrupt decision to reverse himself and allow the spending legislation to advance stunned many of his colleagues and angered many Democratic lawmakers and progressive activists who were spoiling for a shutdown fight to show their determination to counter Trump. Many in his party vociferously opposed the temporary spending measure, arguing that it was a capitulation to the President that would supercharge his efforts, and those of his billionaire ally Elon Musk, to defund and dismantle broad swaths of the government.
As recently as Wednesday, Schumer was arguing strongly against the bill and proposing a month-long alternative to allow Congress to reach an agreement on individual spending measures. But he reversed course on Thursday after Republicans rejected a shorter-term stop-gap bill, with a shutdown looming and amid concerns that Democrats would be blamed.
New York Times News Service