Senate Democrats appear ready to back down in government shutdown fight

Senate Democrats say the six-month government funding resolution that passed the House Tuesday is a “horrible” bill, but there’s growing sentiment within the Senate Democratic conference that it would be too risky to block the legislation and risk a government shutdown that could drag on for weeks.

Senate Democrats battled behind closed doors Tuesday over how to handle the House bill, with a number of Democrats — especially those in swing states — arguing that a government shutdown must be avoided, even if it means reluctantly voting for a House GOP-drafted bill.

Several centrists warned that there’s no clear end game for ending a government shutdown if Democrats defeat the House-passed measure, which would increase defense spending by $6 billion, boost funding for border security and cut non-defense programs by $13 billion.

The bill passed the House 217-213 Tuesday afternoon with only one Democrat voting in favor. But the political calculus is different for Democrats in the Senate because their votes will be needed to avoid a shutdown.

Senate Republicans control 53 seats and would need at least eight Democratic votes to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a filibuster. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a staunch fiscal conservative, says he would vote against the stopgap measure for not doing enough to cut the deficit.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) said he will vote to keep the government open, even if he’s not a fan of the House-passed funding stopgap.

“I’ve been very clear, I’m not going vote or withhold my vote that’s going to shut down the government,” Fetterman told The Hill.

“For me, if the Democrats think that they want to burn the village down to save it, that’s terrible optics and that’s going to have serious impacts for millions and millions of people,” he warned. “I’m never going to vote for that kind of chaos.”

Sen. Angus King (Maine), an independent who caucuses with Democrats, warned that tech billionaire Elon Musk, who is leading President Trump’s effort to downsize government, could use a government shutdown to pressure more federal workers to retire.

“We're dealing with people, many of whom I suspect, think a shutdown would be a good thing, and they could prolong it and use it to expand the president's power even beyond what they're already considering. So that's something that has to be considered. This isn't normal,” King warned.

King didn’t say how he would vote on the six-month House-passed stopgap but signaled he’s worried about the potential outcome if Senate Democrats defeat it.

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) said Democrats have limited leverage to shape the continuing resolution Congress needs to pass to avoid a shutdown.

“I think it’s important to recognize that Republicans have the majority in the House and the Senate, you know that, the White House. They’re already shutting down parts of the government. I’m really concerned about that,” he said.

Kelly also warned against adding to the chaos in Washington while Musk wages his budget-cutting war against federal agencies and Trump fights a trade war with Canada and Mexico.

“Elon Musk is firing veterans, he’s going to continue to do this. We’re in a very challenging economic time. Donald Trump, the decisions he’s made on tariffs, is destroying the economy. This is complicated,” he said.

Kelly said he would have preferred if Republican and Democratic negotiators had reached a deal on the stalled fiscal year 2025 appropriations bills and criticized Republicans for walking away from bipartisan negotiations.

Senate Democrats spent well over an hour debating how to proceed at their weekly caucus lunch meeting in the Lyndon Baines Johnson Room just off the Senate floor.

“The conversation today was divided. I can’t say we have a strategy,” said a Democratic senator who requested anonymity to comment on the internal deliberations. “There are a lot of people who haven’t made a decision.”

The lawmaker said Democrats are worried that they would get the blame for a shutdown if they voted to defeat the House bill. The House is out of session for the rest of the week, upping the pressure on Senate Democrats.

“The CR is a terrible bill … but a shutdown has terrible consequences,” the source added. “Elon Musk is trying to shut down the government. If we shut down the government, it takes the blame away from him and it puts the blame on us for chaos and confusion.”

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) declined to comment about what he and his colleagues discussed in private.

Asked why the meeting dragged on for so long, Schumer joked, “the food was so good, everybody had triples.”

Schumer didn’t talk about the government funding fight when he spoke on the floor Tuesday morning.

Senate Democrats said they would continue to discuss their options on Wednesday.

"We haven't made a final decision. We're still talking about it," Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said of how Democrats will handle the pivotal vote.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) warned that Democrats would bear full responsibility for shutting down government if they block the House bill.

“Without action from Congress, the government will run out of funding come Friday,” he said. “Here we are on the brink of a government shutdown, which will be of entirely of the Democrats’ making if it happens.

“It takes 60 votes in the Senate to pass an appropriations bill so we’re going to need some Democrats to vote for it,” he said.

Government funding is due to lapse at the stroke of 12 a.m. Saturday.

Other Senate Democrats say the House drafted legislation is “horrible,” comparing it to a “dumpster fire.”

“Make no mistake: the entire bill the House is voting on today is House Republicans’ own doing—and it is a dumpster fire. So, I am here to sound the alarm about that fire before it spreads,” Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said on the Senate floor.

Murray urged Senate colleagues to instead pass a short-term continuing resolution to give negotiators a few more weeks to reach a deal on an omnibus spending package.

She argued that the House will would cut Army Corps of Engineers projects to protect against floods and hurricanes by 44 percent and do nothing to address the $280 million shortfall in the National Institutes of Health budget.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), whose state is home to approximately 140,000 federal workers, called the House-passed stopgap a “horrible” but he stopped short of saying he would vote against it.

“It’s a bad bill. I can’t imagine why Republicans would be signing up for a bill that slashes VA construction and food safety. We’ve got an avian flu epidemic,” he said. “The bill is horrible.”

Several vulnerable Democrats declined to say how they will vote on the measure once it comes over from the House.

“We will see what comes out of the House and I will carefully assess what I think is in my state’s and the nation’s best interests,” said Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), who is up for re-election next year.

Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) told reporters after the Tuesday lunch meeting that Democrats had a “robust conversation” about how to handle the House-passed funding bill.

Updated at 7:47 a.m. EDT

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