Senate advances GOP funding bill as Democrats split, averting a government shutdown

Democrats in Washington went from being in a tight spot to a state of intraparty dissent Friday as they argued over whether to vote for a bill they opposed or vote against it, and risk being blamed for a government shutdown.

Ultimately, 10 Senate Democrats joined Republicans in a vote Friday advancing the bill to a final majority vote and ensuring its passage in the Republican-led chamber. Republicans needed eight Democrats to close debate and advance the funding measure. The resolution passed the Senate later in the evening by a vote of 54 to 46, hours ahead of the midnight deadline to continue government funding.

But the party division, in the roll call and behind the scenes this week, reflected divergent views on how to stand up to President Donald Trump as Democrats grapple with limited power and enjoy few moments of leverage.

“My YES vote is *not* an endorsement of this deeply flawed CR,” Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania wrote on X regarding the continuing resolution. “My YES vote is about refusing to shut our government down. I refuse to punish working families and plunge millions of Americans into chaos.”

Fetterman was an early stated “yes” on the resolution. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) announced Thursday that he would also vote to keep government running despite deep concerns with the budget proposal that Democrats had no say in.

“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,” Schumer said.

Sen. Dave McCormick (R., Pa.), who happened to preside over the key vote as it was his turn in the GOP rotation to staff the dais, voted yes on the measure along with all his GOP colleagues.

The eleventh-hour call from Schumer to support the resolution rankled members of his party in both chambers.

Delaware Sens. Chris Coons and Lisa Blunt Rochester voted against the resolution, which will boost defense spending by $6 billion compared to the 2024 fiscal year and decrease nondefense spending by $13 billion. Republicans have said the bill is “clean” and without partisan measures, but many Democrats, including Coons, argued the resolution’s lack of specifics allows Trump and Musk more latitude to direct funds as they wish.

“Blame doesn’t lie with Democrats who were forced to choose between two terrible outcomes,” Coons said in a statement after the initial vote. “It belongs to Trump and his allies in Congress who rammed through a partisan, hardline spending bill so they can move on to their priority of cutting Medicaid to pass more tax cuts for billionaires, and my Republican colleagues who would rather consign themselves to irrelevance than protect their constitutional appropriations responsibility from executive overreach.”

New Jersey Sens. Andy Kim and Cory Booker also voted against the funding measure.

“Republicans have made it so Musk and the most powerful win and everyone else loses,” Kim said in a statement. “I don’t want a shutdown but I can’t vote for this overreach of power, giving Trump and Musk unchecked power to line their pockets.”

Several senators in less reliably Democratic states also opposed it.

» READ MORE: Sen. Fetterman says he’ll back a GOP spending bill to avoid a government shutdown. Will other Democrats follow?

On Friday, House Democrats circulated a letter calling on Schumer to reconsider with 66 signatures.

“The American people sent Democrats to Congress to fight against Republican chaos,” they wrote. “Instead of capitulating to their obstruction, we must fight ... we urge you to reject the partisan continuing resolution.”

The letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Inquirer, had support from Pennsylvania Democratic U.S. Reps. Dwight Evans, Summer Lee, and Madeleine Dean.

In a statement, Dean said, “It is Republicans who control the House, Senate, and White House. It is they who must fund our government — and it is they who have chosen to follow the lawless path of our President.”

Schumer’s counterpart in the House, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, called it a “false choice that Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and House Republicans have been presenting, between their reckless and partisan spending bill and a government shutdown.”

The vote seemed guaranteed to create questions for the party as it closes in on just two months of governing with Trump in the White House. Asked by reporters on the Hill about Schumer and if there should be new leadership in the Senate, Jeffries responded with two words: “Next question.”