WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats say they are prepared to vote to reject the Republicans’ government funding bill, threatening a government shutdown if lawmakers do not strike a deal within days.
Not enough Democrats support the bill to clear the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a filibuster, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor on Wednesday, with less than 72 hours before the government is set to shut down. Instead, Democrats are seeking a bill — known as a continuing resolution, or CR — to keep the government open through April 11 while the two parties complete work on their long-stalled spending bills.
“Republicans chose a partisan path, drafting their continuing resolution without any input — any input — from congressional Democrats,” Mr. Schumer said. “Because of that, Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate” to advance the bill.
Still, it’s unclear whether Democrats’ ultimatum will trigger a shutdown. Democrats have not ruled out striking a deal with Republicans to prevent a shutdown by allowing votes on amendments in exchange for their support.
House Democrats and liberal activists have urged Mr. Schumer and Senate Democrats to vote against the Republican bill, which passed the House on Tuesday with the support of only one Democrat, Rep. Jared Golden, of Maine. Democrats have criticized President Donald Trump and Republicans for crafting the bill without their input and including $13 billion in cuts to nondefense programs such as mental health and substance abuse treatment and workforce training.
Senate Democrats have agonized over whether voting for the bill or blocking it and triggering a government shutdown would do more to embolden Trump and Elon Musk as they work to slash government programs and lay off staffers that they say are wasteful. Mr. Schumer spoke after a lunch meeting in which Democratic senators tried to hash out a strategy to negotiate what Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, described as “a choice between two terrible alternatives.”
Only one Democratic senator, John Fetterman, of Pennsylvania, has said he planned to support the bill. But other Democrats have argued that triggering a government shutdown might help Trump dismantle the federal government by giving him authority to determine which government employees are deemed essential and nonessential.
“If you shut down, he decides what is essential,” Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colorado, told reporters before Senate Democrats’ lunch Wednesday. “He’s the one who decides which arms of government continue, which arms get actually shut down. In a strange way, it gives him even more power.”
Liberal activists have pushed Democrats to negotiate language that would explicitly bar Mr. Musk’s U.S. DOGE Service from impounding any congressionally mandated funds, in a bid to slow the Trump administration’s unilateral layoffs and cuts.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., urged her followers Wednesday to call Democratic senators and urge them to stand strong against the bill. “They are starting to cave,” she wrote on X.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who said he planned to oppose the bill, said he was aware of the message it would send to the Democratic base if Democratic senators swallowed their objections and supported the bill.
“I am somebody that believes that the tactics we use inside this building matter — that there is a ripple effect,” Mr. Murphy said. “And when we fight hard here, people fight harder out around the country.”
First Published: March 12, 2025, 9:11 p.m.
Updated: March 12, 2025, 11:07 p.m.
