Senate Dems brace to vote for a bill they hate — to block Elon Musk
Senate Democrats appear poised to vote for a spending bill they hate to avoid a worse fate: Allowing a government shutdown that could enable President Donald Trump and Elon Musk to make deeper cuts to federal agencies.
The announcement late Thursday by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer that he would support the House GOP’s seven-month stopgap measure was an acknowledgment that Democrats have little choice if they want to avoid empowering Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative to unilaterally halt more federal programs under the cover of a shutdown.
“The Democrats have A or B: Keep the government open or yield the authority to the president,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), a Trump ally who speaks frequently with White House officials, said in an interview.
In a speech on the Senate floor on Thursday night announcing he would support the House-passed stopgap, Schumer said he had little choice as the Friday shutdown deadline loomed.
“Musk has already said he wants a shutdown, and public reporting has shown he is already making plans to expedite his destruction of key government programs and services,” said Schumer. "A shutdown would give Donald Trump the keys to the city, the state and the country.”
The White House would not telegraph its shutdown plans, including whether it would unilaterally halt federal programs and furlough workers. Nor would it detail the work DOGE could undertake if most of the federal government were non-operational.
But on Capitol Hill, Republican lawmakers were saying the quiet part out loud: By opposing the GOP’s funding plan in protest of Trump’s dismantling of government, Democrats would, in fact, be helping his cause.
“We're cutting employees right now, because we’re trying to save costs,” Mullin continued. “And if the Democrats are going to play a game and shut it down — and then yield the power to him — it’ll be really easy for them to lift up the hood, look at all the essential and non-essential employees. Seems like to me it plays in their favor.”
Punctuating that threat, Musk on Wednesday night responded on X with a thinking-face emoji to a suggestion from another social media user that furloughed workers should not be brought back on the government payroll after a shutdown.
Handing Trump the power to decide what parts of the federal government are essential has been high on the list of risks Senate Democrats have been weighing. They essentially face a lose-lose choice between letting federal funding lapse and advancing a funding bill that cuts non-defense programs by about $13 billion while giving Trump leeway to shift federal money.
Both outcomes are the opposite of what Democrats tried to achieve during weeks of bipartisan funding negotiations, where they fought unsuccessfully for language to block Trump from halting spending Congress already approved and firing tens of thousands of federal workers.
Now Democratic senators worry that Trump and Musk could use a shutdown to fire more government employees, including military veterans, and shutter some agencies indefinitely.
At one point during a closed-door lunch meeting Thursday, Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York warned her colleagues of “serious harm” if federal funding were to lapse and that “this will not be a normal shutdown” — raising her voice so loud that her comments were audible outside the room.
“We could see more veterans lose their jobs. We could see government departments that never open up again. So that's a bad option,” said Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) on Thursday.
Kelly has said he plans to oppose the stopgap bill, however, and it remained unclear Thursday night whether enough Democrats would join Schumer to support a procedural vote necessary to move onto final passage of the legislation. With Schumer and Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania committed to voting "yes," Republicans need six more Democrats to seal the deal — Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, has long said he'll vote "no."
Meanwhile, Senate Republicans have argued it would be Democrats who risked further stressing the federal workforce under a shutdown scenario.
Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, a member of Republican leadership, said Thursday that a government shutdown would “obviously” be a “clear moment to declare who’s essential and non-essential, and that's a moment right now in the middle of the DOGE conversations."
“Federal workers are going through a lot right now. There's a lot of challenge for them, a lot of stress for them. Democrats are literally adding more to it,” Lankford said in an interview. “Not being pejorative, but one of the things I've said to my colleagues: ‘Do you really want to do this right now to federal workers and their families?’”
One former Trump administration official, granted anonymity to share their insights, said that using a shutdown to accomplish the administration’s bureaucracy-slashing goals was a “crazy” strategy but one that could not entirely be ruled out.
The person said the White House could be “very comfortable” during a shutdown, which would give broad latitude to Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, and his budget director, Russ Vought, to make unilateral decisions about spending.
“It’s going to prove their point, if you only have essential employees and things work fine,” the former official said. “You could have a painless shutdown and prove a metaphorical point that we need less government.”
Republicans have been preparing to lay blame for a potential shutdown at Democrats’ feet. Trump himself insisted to reporters Thursday that a shutdown would not be Republicans’ fault, especially after he personally lobbied members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus to vote to keep federal programs afloat.
“People were amazed that the Republicans were able to vote in unison like that, so strongly,” Trump said.
A White House official had declined earlier in the day on Thursday to offer any further specifics on the possibility of a shutdown, how the administration would handle it and what it would mean for DOGE’s ongoing work, beyond the president’s remarks.
But past examples hinted at the authority the administration believes it has during a shutdown. As budget director during Trump’s first term, Vought played a key role steering the administration through a 35-day partial shutdown in 2019 sparked by a fight over border wall funding. During that shutdown, federal agencies used creative approaches to mitigate some of the public backlash.
Some of those strategies were later found to have been illegal: After the Interior Department diverted money from visitor fees to pay for operations at National Parks during the shutdown, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office issued a legal opinion concluding that the Trump administration move violated federal laws.
OMB also at that time allowed agencies to perform certain duties they would not normally be allowed to execute under a shutdown scenario. The budget office, for instance, allowed the IRS to recall staff to prepare and process tax returns and later permitted the agency to resume paying tax refunds. The Agriculture Department continued to fund Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits and the Fish and Wildlife Service called back furloughed staff to clean up wildlife refuges.
Former Trump White House officials point to that shutdown to demonstrate the broad purview OMB has over spending during a federal funding lapse and how it can work to make the experience as painless or painful as possible — depending on what is most helpful for the administration in power.
One unanswered question is just how aggressive a second-term Trump administration could be during a shutdown in further shrinking the federal bureaucracy. William Hoagland, who spent several decades working on the Senate Budget Committee and advising Republicans on budget matters, said lawmakers were right to fret about what might happen.
“The administration is breaking a lot of china,” he said, “and doing a lot of things that are unprecedented.”
Lisa Kashinsky, Rachael Bade and Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.
-
Senate Democrats leery of blocking GOP bill fear shutdown politics have changed
Senate Democrats are leery of blocking a House Republican-drafted six-month government funding bill, fearing that a government shutdown may backfire on them politically by giving Elon Musk and the ...The Hill - 4d -
Thune 'open' to giving Dems amendment vote to help keep government open
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said Thursday that Republicans are open to giving Democrats an amendment vote on a monthlong stopgap funding patch in exchange for votes to help ...The Hill - 2d -
Newsom tells Senate Dems to 'do the right thing,' oppose CR
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has called on Senate Democrats "to stand up and do the right thing" and vote no on the GOP-backed stopgap bill that would avert a looming government shutdown. ...The Hill - 1d -
Senate votes to advance GOP funding bill, allowing for vote to avoid shutdown
Senate Republicans and some Democrats voted to advance a stopgap funding bill which clears the path for a final vote to avert a government shutdown. The 62-38 vote included 10 Democrats joining all ...NBC News - 1d -
Senate begins voting to advance bill to fund government
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) announced Friday afternoon that the Senate would begin voting immediately on a procedural motion to end debate on a House-passed bill to fund the ...The Hill - 1d -
Senate Dems give up on shutdown
Welcome to The Hill's Business & Economy newsletter {beacon} Business & Economy Business & Economy The Big Story Senate advances bill to prevent shutdown A group of 10 Democrats, including ...The Hill - 1d -
Chuck Schumer to vote for Republican funding bill to avert shutdown
Minority leader laments ‘Hobson’s choice’ but says shutdown would give Trump and Musk ‘carte blanche’. The Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, said on Thursday he would vote for a ...The Guardian - 1d -
Schumer says Democrats will block GOP funding bill, raising shutdown alert
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to pass the House-approved deal to fund the government.ABC News - 2d -
Government funding bill passes House 217-213, heads to Senate for vote
The House narrowly passed a six-month funding bill that would prevent a government shutdown at the end of the week. The measure’s fate is uncertain in the Senate, where several Democrats will be ...NBC News - 4d -
Senate votes to avoid government shutdown
The Senate voted mostly along party lines Friday afternoon to pass the House Republican-drafted bill to fund government through September, avoiding a government shutdown only hours before funding ...The Hill - 1d -
Senate advances GOP funding bill, clearing the way for a final vote to avert a government shutdown
The GOP-controlled Senate will press forward with a procedural vote to advance a stopgap funding bill to avert a government shutdown before a midnight deadline.NBC News - 1d -
Senate Democrats insist on voting on 30-day government funding bill
Senate Democrats say they will not vote for the House-passed six-month government funding package, which would boost defense spending and cut nondefense programs, unless they first get a vote on a ...The Hill - 3d -
Watch live: Jeffries speaks as Senate Democrats face funding bill vote
House Democratic leaders are slated to hold a press conference as their counterparts in the Senate face down a nail-biter vote on government funding. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) ...The Hill - 1d -
These 10 Democrats voted to advance the GOP funding bill
Ten Senate Democrats helped Republicans advance a GOP-crafted stopgap spending bill, paving the way for it to pass ahead of the midnight deadline despite concerns from scores of their colleagues. ...The Hill - 1d -
With Democrats' help, Senate votes to avert a government shutdown
The Senate passed a House-approved government funding bill that averts a government shutdown that was set to be triggered at the end of the day Friday.ABC News - 23h -
Schumer says he will vote yes on GOP funding bill
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called it a “Hobson’s choice” and that the Republican bill is a “terrible option” but indicated he would vote yes on the funding bill to prevent a government ...NBC News - 1d -
Senate Advances Bill to Avert Government Shutdown
Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, and nine other members of the Democratic caucus joined the G.O.P. in voting to advance a bill to keep government funding flowing past midnight.The New York Times - 1d -
Congressional Black Caucus members condemn spending bill as ‘blank check’ for Trump, Musk
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus have condemned the House-passed spending bill and vowed to vote against it when it comes up in the Senate, even as other Democrats say they’ll support ...The Hill - 1d -
Top House Democrats press Senate colleagues to sink GOP spending bill
The top House Democrats are pressing their fellow party members in the Senate to kill the Republicans’ spending bill when it reaches the upper chamber, saying the proposal will hurt Americans ...The Hill - 3d -
Top budget Democrat: GOP spending bill hands ‘a blank check to Elon Musk’
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, slammed the new House Republicans’ six-month stopgap funding bill, claiming it is a “blank check” for tech ...The Hill - Mar. 8 -
Democrats react to Schumer's plan to vote for GOP funding bill
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is surprising a lot of Democrats with his move to vote for the Republican funding bill in order to avoid a looming government shutdown. Moderator of Meet the ...NBC News - 1d -
Senators face ‘two difficult choices’ over crunch to avoid government shutdown, says Dem. senator
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) says on Meet the Press NOW he’s a “hell no” on the House bill as Senate Democrats debate strategy with a government funding deadline hours away.NBC News - 2d -
Whole Hog Politics: Your way-too-early Senate race ratings
On the menu: Tariffs tax approval; Dems jockey for 2028 position; Elon-gated; Biden hemmed in Harris; a wild commute As Senate Democrats agonize over whether to help Republicans avoid a government ...The Hill - 1d -
House funding vote puts Senate Democrats in a bind: From the Politics Desk
Senate Democrats are in a politically precarious position after the House passed a stopgap bill to avoid a government shutdown.NBC News - 3d -
Senate GOP campaign arm targets Ossoff over vote against funding bill in digital ad
The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) targeted Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) in a new digital ad on Friday over his vote against a GOP-crafted bill to fund the government through ...The Hill - 21h -
House spending bill to avert shutdown faces hurdles in Senate
House Speaker Mike Johnson was able to squeeze a short-term government funding bill through a vote by a slimmest of margins. Attention now turns to the senators across the hall with a government ...CBS News - 3d -
Senate passes short-term funding bill, averting a government shutdown
The Senate has passed a short-term funding bill in a 54-46 vote, avoiding a government shutdown. The legislation already passed in the House and now heads to President Trump's desk. CBS News ...CBS News - 22h -
What Does a Shutdown Have to Do With the Budget or Elon Musk? Here’s a Guide.
A short-term spending bill, a 10-year budget plan and Musk’s cost-cutting team are all progressing at once.The New York Times - 4d -
Arizona Democrats say they'll vote against GOP bill to avert shutdown
A pair of Senate Democrats from a key battleground state on Thursday said that they would vote against the GOP’s six-month spending bill, raising questions about the possibility of a government ...The Hill - 2d -
Evening Report — Senate Democrats under pressure over stopgap
Presented by National Council on Aging {beacon} Evening Report TRUMP FIRST 100 DAYS © Greg Nash Senate Dems under pressure over stopgap THE PRESSURE IN CONGRESS has shifted to Senate Democrats, ...The Hill - 3d -
After House votes to avert shutdown, Senate Democrats face 'stark' choice
House Republicans passed a bill to fund the government through the end of September 2025. The measure now heads to the Senate, where Democrats face a "stark" choice.ABC News - 3d -
Senate Banking panel advances stablecoin bill
The Senate Banking Committee voted Thursday to advanced legislation to create a regulatory framework for payment stablecoins. The movement on the GENIUS Act marks a key win for the Trump ...The Hill - 2d -
Schumer says he will vote to advance GOP spending bill, lowering threat of shutdown
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) announced on the Senate floor Thursday that he plans to vote to advance a House-passed six-month government funding bill, despite the strong opposition ...The Hill - 2d -
Schumer says he'll vote for GOP funding bill, other Democrats criticize plan
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says he'll vote in favor of House Republicans' stopgap funding bill as Congress barrels toward the deadline to avert a government shutdown. Siobhan Hughes, ...CBS News - 1d -
Some Senate Democrats split over spending bill to avert government shutdown
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Republicans don't currently have the votes to pass the short-term spending bill. Some Democrats say they are split over whether to support the stopgap ...CBS News - 2d -
After Elon Musk’s Delaware exit, state lawmakers weigh bill to overhaul corporate law
Delaware lawmakers are considering a bill that aims to make the state attractive to investors and executives.CNBC - 10h -
Senate Republican says Musk ‘does not have the power to fire people’
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said Sunday that tech billionaire Elon Musk “does not have the power to fire people.” "Elon Musk does not have the power to fire people. The president of the United States ...The Hill - 6d -
Morning Report — Dems between rock and hard place on stopgap
In today’s issue: The shutdown ball is firmly in the Senate’s court. The spending package passed the House along party lines, with one sole Democrat voting with most Republicans to pass the ...The Hill - 2d -
What to know after Schumer says he'll vote for GOP bill to avert government shutdown
Just a day after saying Republicans didn't have the votes to pass their continuing resolution, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says he'll vote to keep the government open. Congress has until ...CBS News - 1d
More from Politico
-
Senate passes DC budget fix after House GOP omission
Politico - 1d -
Senate Democratic leadership split on funding bill
Politico - 1d -
Chuck Schumer is drowning in Dem criticism. Hakeem Jeffries refused to throw him a rope.
Politico - 1d -
Mark Kelly ditches his Tesla
Politico - 1d -
Pelosi slams 'false choice' on shutdown, indirectly criticizing Schumer
Politico - 1d
More in Politics
-
Sunday shows preview: Congress avoids government shutdown; Trump tariffs rattle economy
Republicans scored a major win on Friday as the Senate approved the House-GOP crafted spending bill, largely authored without input from Democrats. The new piece of legislation boosts defense ...The Hill - 55m -
Here's where Trump's approval rating stands on key issues
President Trump's approval ratings are showing signs of weakening nearly two months into his second term. While his efforts to crack down on immigration seem largely well-received, Trump’s ...The Hill - 1h -
US launches ‘decisive and powerful’ strikes against Houthis in Yemen
President Trump said the United States has launched “decisive and powerful” strikes against Houthi militants in Yemen, warning that the military “will use overwhelming lethal force” until the ...The Hill - 2h -
DOGE representatives visit US Institute of Peace, are turned away
U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP) officials said several members of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) arrived unannounced with FBI agents on Saturday but were denied access to the ...The Hill - 2h -
Extreme weather sweeps through the US after storms kill at least 17
Large scale wildfires and straight-line-winds ravaged Oklahoma on Friday, one day before violent tornadoes hit the Mississippi Valley on Saturday, resulting in at least 17 deaths. The state of ...The Hill - 3h