Democratic senators say that unless Republicans scrap their plan to advance a “clean” seven-week continuing resolution, they don’t see any option other than defeating it as a way to send a “message” to President Trump.
Doing so would almost certainly trigger a government shutdown, something Democrats avoided earlier this year but is increasingly looking inevitable this fall.
Democratic senators, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the looming shutdown has been the chief topic of discussion in recent caucus meetings.
They said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), who took enormous heat from his left flank after voting for a GOP funding bill earlier this year, has not laid out any Plan B to avert a shutdown before the Sept. 30 deadline.
“Donald Trump gave us the middle finger, there is no alternative,” said a Democratic senator, who requested anonymity to discuss caucus strategy.
A second Democratic senator said a brief shutdown would give Democrats a “win,” even if it doesn’t result in any concrete policy concessions from Republicans. This Democrat said doing so would send a “message” to Trump that the White House can’t continue to steamroll Congress.
“Without some accommodation, some compromise, I think there probably will be a shutdown for a period of time,” the lawmaker said.
The second senator said they would not vote for the stopgap measure funding the government through Nov. 21, which House Republicans plan to pass later this week.
“I hate a shutdown anyway, we don’t have any choice. We can’t go along with what they’re doing,” the senator said. “We should use every lever we have and this is one of the very few levers where we can actually push [Trump.]
“If Trump declares martial law, well, let him be transparent and show the world that’s what he thinks his ultimate goal is,” the lawmaker added.
Congress has little time to avoid a shutdown. Lawmakers are expected to be out next week for Rosh Hashanah, and would return to the Capitol on Sept. 29 on their current schedule.
Democratic senators familiar with the deliberations within their caucus right now count six Democratic votes — at most — for the seven-week continuing resolution that is expected to reach the Senate on Friday or Saturday.
The party would likely need at least eight votes to help Republicans reach the 60 votes necessary to move Senate legislation forward. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has said he will vote against the funding measure because it prolongs spending put in place by the Biden administration.
Senate Democratic leaders haven’t conducted a formal whip count yet, but lawmakers believe that Sens. John Fetterman (Pa.), Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Maggie Hassan (N.H.), Catherine Cortez Masto (Nev.), Jacky Rosen (Nev.) and Angus King (Maine), an Independent who caucuses with Democrats, are likely or possible “yes” votes.
Fetterman has said repeatedly that he will not vote to shut down the government.
He said a shutdown “is never a good idea” even though he “fully supports” extending the enhanced health insurance premium subsidies under the Affordable Care Act, which are due to expire at the end of the year.
Fetterman is worried that his Democratic colleagues have staked out such a strong position ahead of the Sept. 30 funding deadline that a shutdown is inevitable.
“They are actively painting themselves into the corner. That’s why I’m deeply concerned there will be a shutdown,” he said. “I won’t be a part of it.”
Senate Democrats have crafted an alternative government funding measure that would extend the expiring health insurance subsidies, restore Medicaid funding cut by the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, and prevent the Trump administration from clawing back previously appropriated funding through “pocket rescissions.”
Republicans, however, say these demands are a non-starter.
Senate Democrats say there’s been a dramatic shift in shift in strategy since March, when Schumer and nine other members of the Senate Democratic caucus voted for a House-passed, Republican-drafted continuing resolution to avoid a shutdown.
Schumer’s vote sparked a furious backlash from the Democratic Party’s base and briefly raised questions about his future as Democratic leader.
Six months ago, Schumer didn’t take a hardline against the House-GOP drafted continuing resolution while it moved through the lower chamber, leaving it ambiguous whether Democrats would ultimately support it in the Senate.
Democratic senators say it was clear in March that Schumer wasn’t ready to force a shutdown to push back against Trump.
Sources familiar with conversations among Senate Democrats in March said they didn’t have a clear strategy over how to handle the continuing resolution if it passed the House, and defaulted to just hoping that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) couldn’t muster enough votes to send it across the Capitol.
Now Schumer is making it clear to Republicans that the House-crafted stopgap will fail in the Senate, even though he hasn’t laid out any Plan B.
“When President Trump goes on Fox News and says to Republicans, ‘Don’t even bother dealing with [Democrats]’ … when he says out lout he doesn’t need or want our votes, that means Donald Trump wants a shutdown. Full stop,” Schumer said after meeting with Democratic colleagues Tuesday.
Schumer in a joint statement with House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said the short-term funding proposal put together by House Republicans “fails to meet the needs of the American people and does nothing to stop the looming healthcare crisis.”
Democrats say as much as they hate the idea of shutting down the government, they can’t swallow the House Republican funding bill after GOP leaders repeatedly ignored their requests to negotiate the measure.
“We have a lot of diverse views in the caucus but we’re all professional politicians. And an iron law in politics is if you want a vote, you have to ask what it would take to get it and they haven’t even asked,” said Sen. Brian Schatz (Hawaii), the Democratic chief deputy whip, referring to Republicans.
Schatz voted for the partisan GOP stopgap measure in March but warns he will vote “no” on the continuing resolution unveiled this week by House Republicans.
