Congress averts government shutdown after Senate passes stopgap funding bill

(CNN) — Congress averted a government shutdown Friday just hours before the funding deadline, after the Senate approved a House-passed spending bill that exposed deep rifts within the Democratic Party.

The stopgap measure to fund the government into the fall now heads to the desk of President Donald Trump, who is expected to sign it.

Senate Democrats came under intense pressure to oppose the Trump-backed bill, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and others are now facing backlash after they helped to clear a path for its passage.

The rising tensions within the party spilled into public view as lawmakers raced toward a shutdown that would have had far-reaching consequences across the federal government – highlighting the struggle Democrats face in attempting to counter Trump and the Republican monopoly on power in Washington.

Some 90 minutes before Senate Republicans staved off a shutdown on a nearly party-line vote, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and nine others crossed the aisle to advance it in a key procedural vote – despite intensifying pressure from their caucus to sink it outright. The legislation, however, only required a simple majority in the chamber for final passage, and all but two in the group ultimately opposed it.

Schumer argued his party had only bad options when it came to shutting down the government – possibly for months – to challenge Trump, or accepting a GOP bill that Democrats have warned would cut spending to programs like veterans’ health care or Washington, DC, firefighters and police.

“I believe it is the best way to minimize the harm that the Trump administration will do to the American people,” Schumer argued in defense of his decision to clear a pathway for the bill’s passage.

“Clearly, this is a Hobson’s choice. The CR is a bad bill, but as bad as the CR is, I believe allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option,” he continued.

Trump praised Schumer for announcing he would support the measure, telling reporters after the vote Friday: “I appreciate Senator Schumer, and I think he did the right thing, really. I’m very impressed by that.”

Outside of Schumer’s leadership team, many Senate Democrats as well as House Democrats seethed at the Democrat’s move, which they saw as a capitulation in the party’s first real leverage point in Trump’s second term.

The initial vote, while procedural, had been closely watched by Democrats across the country, who saw it as a test of their party leaders’ willingness to fight Trump.

Ultimately, the Senate voted 54-46 to approve the stopgap bill to fund the government through September 30. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, and Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with the party, voted in favor of the bill and just one Republican – Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky – opposed it.

“Once I had voted for cloture, it was an opportunity to pass the bill, and I thought it was more honest to vote for it,” Shaheen told CNN, adding: “I thought, much as I didn’t like the CR, I thought a government shutdown would be worse and would give Trump and Elon Musk and the DOGE operation more of an opportunity to fire people, to shut down agencies and to close the work of the government.”

After voting to pass the stopgap bill, the Senate approved a separate measure to allow Washington, DC, to maintain control over its funds after Democrats warned the Republican funding package would cut $1.1 billion of the city’s funding. The measure would next need to be passed by the House, where its fate is unclear.

At the urging of prominent Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, voters had been flooding senators’ offices with calls urging them to block the bill and take on Trump for his dismantling of the federal government. Ultimately, many Democrats believe, Schumer failed that test.

The New York Democrat’s strategy has faced fierce blowback from all corners of the Democratic Party, including in his own chamber, though no senators have publicly said they would challenge his leadership over the move.

Earlier in the week, top House Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, led a fierce whip operation against the bill, ultimately losing just one of their members on the vote. But it was not enough to sink the bill, which passed the House Tuesday.

Jeffries would not answer Friday when asked whether he had lost confidence in Schumer, with whom he diverged on the funding issue.

“Next question,” he told reporters.

Democrats contemplate path forward

Senate Democrats are now grappling with how to move forward as a caucus after the government funding bill split their party.

Schumer told CNN’s Jake Tapper Friday evening that he “always knew there would be disagreements,” but maintained that a “government shutdown would be far worse” than voting for the GOP-led measure.

“My job as leader is to lead the party and if there’s going to be danger in the near future, to protect the party. And I’m proud I did it, I knew I did the right thing, and I knew there would be some disagreements. That’s how it always is,” he said.

Schumer also defended his leadership position, saying, “My caucus and I are in sync.”

Sen. Martin Heinrich, the top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, would not say whether he thought the party needed a new leader, telling reporters: “That’s a conversation for inside the caucus. I’m not going to debate that out here.”

“I think that Leader Schumer has been very effective in a lot of battles, but we also need to — these are new times, and we need to all come together. And so, you know, second guessing Leader Schumer out here isn’t going to accomplish the kind of community that we’re going to need to be able to stand up to the president. So, we’ll have that conversation inside caucus,” the New Mexico Democrat added.

Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said that he has “faith in Chuck Schumer,” but acknowledged that the caucus had a “choppy week.”

“I voted no on the CR. I heard that overwhelmingly from folks, and again, recognizing I got tons of federal workers. But I have total respect for the folks who reached another conclusion, and the idea that they would have had a shutdown that would have put us into the abyss with, unfortunately, parts of this administration, doesn’t follow the law,” he said.

He added, “I think the Democrats need to have a pro-growth agenda that recognizes fairness, and that is, frankly, not the debate though, that we just took place. That we just took place, it was two awful choices.”

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Lauren Fox and Annie Grayer contributed to this report.

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