Democrats look to save face in shutdown battle
Senate Democrats say privately that they will not allow the government to shut down on Saturday, despite growing pressure from activists and liberal lawmakers who want them to kill a GOP-crafted six-month stopgap spending bill.
Senate Democratic sources say Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) is giving plenty of room to centrists in his caucus to vote for the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) if doing so is the only way to avoid a government shutdown at week’s end.
And one Democratic senator familiar with the internal deliberations said Senate Democrats will ultimately vote to keep the government open, despite the rumblings of liberals within their caucus who are heaping scorn on the House-passed funding bill.
Still, the private assurances don’t rule out the possibility that something unexpected could happen to change the political calculus.
Schumer on Wednesday said Democrats would insist on voting on a month-long CR to give congressional negotiators more time to reach a deal on an omnibus spending package. And he threatened that there are not enough votes to pass the House-approved funding bill.
But Democrats familiar with internal deliberations say that maneuver is designed to save face. They say the Democratic leader is giving members of his caucus space to vote how they see fit on the House-passed bill — recognizing it’s probably the only way to avoid a shutdown.
So far, Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) has been the most outspoken Democratic senator about the need to avoid a shutdown.
“Now it’s a CR that we all agree we don’t like — but for me we can’t ever allow the government to shut down,” he told CNN Wednesday, echoing comments he made earlier in the week.
“If you shut it down, you will impact and hurt millions and millions and millions Americans, and you run the risk of slipping us into a recession,” he warned.
Other moderates including Sens. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) are also warning of the devastating consequences of a shutdown.
“The president has shown a willingness to cut far and wide, really on impulse in many cases … if you shut down, he decides what is essential. [Trump] is the one who decides which arms of government continue, which arms get actually shut down. In a strange way [a government shutdown] gives him even more power,” Hickenlooper warned.
The Colorado senator told reporters that he has not made up his mind on how to vote.
Schumer’s decision to let the debate play out in the Democratic caucus has disappointed some liberals who wanted their leader to take a more confrontational stance on the GOP-written bill, which Democrats argue would cut critical services, and declare it “dead on arrival” in the Senate.
But Schumer decided not to do that as it would have put tremendous pressure on centrist Democrats who are up for re-election, such as Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.).
With Schumer opting not to twist arms on the upcoming government funding votes, Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), the ranking members on the Appropriations and Budget committees have taken the lead in advocating for a clean 30-day funding stopgap.
“What’s going on is that Murray and Merkley are pressing very hard for a 30-day CR and Schumer is pressing a different direction. He wants to provide the votes and let this thing pass. He’s very concerned about a shutdown,” said a second Democratic senator who requested anonymity to discuss the dynamics within the Democratic caucus before it met for lunch Wednesday to debate strategy.
Democrats battled over strategy for more than an hour in the Lyndon Baines Johnson Room located just off the Senate floor. The discussion grew so passionate that some senators could be heard shouting through the door.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) was one Democrat who argued strongly against the House-passed bill on Wednesday.
“I don’t understand how anyone can support a bill that would give Donald Trump the opportunity to fire another 25,000 veterans and take away nursing home spots from tens of thousands of seniors, all so that the Republicans can give $4.7 trillion in giveaways to billionaires and billionaire corporations,” Warren said before the meeting.
Schumer gave ground to liberal colleagues by announcing after the Democratic lunch that he and his colleagues would insist on a vote on the 30-day continuing resolution introduced by Murray.
He vowed that Democrats would block the House-passed government funding bill unless they got a chance to vote on Murray’s bill.
“Republicans chose a partisan path, drafting their continuing resolution without any input, any input from congressional Democrats. Because of that, Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on the House [continuing resolution],” he said.
“Our caucus is unified on a clean April 11 CR that will keep the government open and give Congress time to negotiate bipartisan legislation that can pass. We should vote on that. I hope, I hope our Republican colleagues will join us to avoid a shutdown on Friday,” he added.
But that bill is expected to fail and when it does, at least eight Democrats are expected to then vote for the House-passed bill, which President Trump has indicated he would sign into law.
Senate Republicans say they might give Democrats a vote on the clean 30-day continuing resolution sponsored by Murray if Schumer agrees to speed up the timeline for considering that bill as well as the House-passed measure.
Republicans, however, say they would “whip” the vote on Murray’s proposal to make sure it doesn’t have enough votes to actually pass and derail the House bill.
“They got out and made this statement but they haven’t approached with any kind of suggestion or an offer yet,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said of Schumer’s demand for a vote on a month-long continuing resolution.
Thune said Democrats “could trade for time” to get a vote on a 30-day continuing resolution.
“If they want a vote on it, instead of hanging around here until midnight on Friday,” Democrats could agree to vote on the Murray’s month-long CR and the House-passed six-month CR earlier in the week, Thune said.
Senate Republicans point out that the House has adjourned for the week and has no plans to return before government funding lapses on March 14. They argue that even if the Senate passes a 30-day continuing resolution, there’s no clear indication that the House would reconvene in the next few days to pass it. And they warn there’s not assurance that Trump would sign the Democratic-drafted measure into law.
“I think that ship has sailed,” said one Senate Republican aide of the prospect of 13 Republican senators voting for a 30-day continuing resolution.
Senate Republicans control a 53-to-47-seat majority. That means that at least eight Democrats would have to vote for the House-passed bill or at least 13 Republicans would have to vote for the 30-day continuing resolution to pass either measure.
Most bills need to secure at least 60 votes to overcome a filibuster in the Senate.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a staunch fiscal conservative, says he plans to vote against the House-passed funding bill because it doesn’t do enough to cut the federal deficit.
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