Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said his caucus does not have enough votes to advance the short-term funding bill that passed in the House on Tuesday. Instead, he is calling for a vote on a one-month clean continuing resolution, pushing the government closer to a shutdown.
“Funding the government should be a bipartisan effort, but Republicans chose a partisan path, drafting their continuing resolution without any input … from Congressional Democrats,” Schumer said, speaking on the floor on Wednesday afternoon. “Because of that, Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on the House CR.”
Schumer: "Republicans do not have the votes to invoke cloture (on their continuing resolution)." Schumer says his caucus is "unified" around the one-month CR that Dems have drafted.
— Samantha-Jo Roth (@SamanthaJoRoth) March 12, 2025
The New York Democrat instead said the Democratic caucus is unified on a clean stopgap measure that would fund the government until April 11.
“That would keep the government open and give Congress time to negotiate bipartisan legislation that can pass — we should vote on that,” Schumer said.
Following a second day of closed-door meetings, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said that Democrats want amendment votes in exchange for voting for cloture.
“We want amendments, and we think we are entitled to get an amendment vote — and we are not going to support cloture until we get that,” Kaine said, speaking to reporters. “[Republicans] write a bill without us, but … if they want us to give procedural votes to move the thing along, then they need to give us amendment votes.”
Senate Democrats have been grappling over whether to vote to support the House GOP stopgap measure they’ve been criticizing or withhold their votes and cause a government shutdown. Earlier on Wednesday, Democrats were still divided over whether they should attempt to utilize their leverage to extract concessions from Republicans or risk being blamed for a shutdown.
At least eight Democratic senators must join Republicans for a CR to pass in the upper chamber since Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said he opposed the measure this week.
Nearly every member of the Democratic caucus has publicly condemned the measure, which raises defense spending by about $8 billion and lowers nondefense spending by about $13 billion with cuts to healthcare and research grants.
So far, Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) is the only Senate Democrat who says he will vote with Republicans to advance the bill. He did not attend the closed-door meeting with Democrats and said he didn’t believe a 30-day patch was “realistic.”
Fetterman has argued against any action that would shut down the government in an attempt to rein in the Department of Government Efficiency’s wide-scale cuts, a risk in which Democrats would be taking the blame for hurting federal workers and critical government services.
“I’m daring them, go ahead, shut the government down. They’re going to own it, and then that’s going to be bad for everybody, especially the people … the economy and the government workers that now are going to be furloughed and they’re not going to get paid,” Fetterman told reporters on Wednesday afternoon.
“If we vote to shut [the government] down, then that’s going to be on Democrats; we’re going to own that, and I refuse to participate on a vote that shuts our government down,” he added.
Senate Democrats huddled behind closed doors on Tuesday and Wednesday, looking at all their options regarding the House-passed bill. A number of swing state Democrats argued against a government shutdown, even if it meant voting for a bill they didn’t support.
Others warned that shutting down the government could backfire and empower Trump to dismantle more of the federal government.
“I read that [the Office of Management and Budget] would be in charge of things during a shutdown. That’s a concern,” said Sen. Angus King (I-ME), who caucuses with Democrats.
King said he did not discuss his view during the meeting on Wednesday but called it a “good discussion,” saying the choice is between “two terrible alternatives.”
Others expressed a similar view as Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-CO) who told reporters Wednesday he is still undecided on the seven-month funding bill, calling it a lose-lose situation.
“I’ve gone back and forth on this because it is two horrible choices, and it’s hard to imagine two worse choices. In either case, you can envision terrible things happening, people losing funding for essential things in Colorado that people depend on,” Hickenlooper explained. “It’s a waterfall of horribles.”
In the closed-door session on Wednesday, some Senate Democrats expressed concerns about voting for the legislation since it will send a message to Republicans that they can write government funding bills without compromising with Democrats, knowing that some will ultimately cave and support the measure anyway.
Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) announced he would not vote for the bill, arguing it will “further cement the Trump Administration’s chaos and reckless actions.”
“This bill would allow Donald Trump, Elon Musk and illegal DOGE operators to continue shutting down parts of the government that help our constituents — like veterans’ services, Social Security offices, firefighters, bird flu experts, and much more,” Schiff said on X. “It would also perpetuate Trump’s economy-busting tariffs by putting them beyond congressional repeal.”
Democrats are facing growing pressure from the left flank of their party to oppose the House bill, which passed along party lines on Tuesday. House Republicans adjourned on Tuesday night and are not expected to return to Capitol Hill until March 24.
They’ve been caught flat-footed and have struggled to respond to the sheer volume of executive orders, personnel changes, and policy shifts that have occurred in the month and a half since Trump’s inauguration.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) urged Democrats in the Senate to block a test vote on the House’s CR, warning them to be clear-eyed about “procedural games.”
“It should be very clear to every Senate Democrat that any vote for Cloture will also be considered a vote for the bill,” Ocasio-Cortez posted on X. “People aren’t going to be tricked with procedural games.”
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said the pressure from grassroots liberals to join House Democrats in withholding their votes doesn’t weigh on his decision but indicated he’s inclined to vote against the legislation.
“That’s not how I think about my job — right, my job is to do the right thing for the country and for my state,” Murphy said. “That’s the way I’ve made my calculation. I don’t want to set up slush funds for the president. I ultimately want to make sure that the services that matter most in Connecticut get funded in this.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) is warning Democrats that they would be blamed for a government shutdown if they block the government funding bill.
“Without action from Congress, the government will run out of funding come Friday,” Thune said, speaking to reporters during a weekly press conference on Tuesday. “Here we are on the brink of a government shutdown, which will be entirely of the Democrats’ making if it happens.”
— Senate Republicans (@SenateGOP) March 12, 2025
The Senate Republican Conference is already preparing to shape the narrative, posting on X to blame Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for a shutdown.
HOUSE GOP PASSES STOPGAP FUNDING BILL WITH HELP OF TRUMP-VANCE PRESSURE CAMPAIGN
“Sen. Chuck Schumer is so mad that Joe Biden lost that he wants to shut down the government,” a graphic posted on its account read.
Government funding is due to lapse at 12 a.m. ET Saturday. A vote on the legislation has not yet been set.
Ramsey Touchberry contributed to this report.
