Washington-with the divided Democrats and pointing out the fingers, the Senate controlled by the Republican party will advance on Friday afternoon with a key procedure vote to advance a Stopgap financing bill to avoid a government closure before a midnight deadline.
If sufficient Democrats join the Republicans to cross the threshold of 60 votes, the Senate will pass to a final vote on the six -month financing extension, where a simple majority is needed for the passage. The bill cleared the voting chamber of a party line earlier this week.
Under the pressure of his left flank and the Democrats of the House of Representatives to block the financing package of the Republican Party, the leader of the Senate Minority, Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., had maintained their cards near the vest on its closing strategy throughout the week.
But on Thursday, Schumer said he would vote to advance in the Financing Law, giving coverage to other Democrats to do the same and significantly reduce the threat of a catastrophic closure in the middle of a broader economic uncertainty.
Defending his decision in a floor speech on Friday, Schumer warned that a closure would be much worse than approveing the bill of the Republican Party. He argued that a closure would give Trump, his billionaire advisor Elon Musk and the Government Efficiency Department (Doge) even more power to reduce federal workforce and government services. They could do that, said Schumer, dictating who are “essential” and non -essential workers in a closure.
“I will vote to maintain the open government. I think it is the best way to minimize the damage that the Trump administration will make to the American people. Clearly, this is a hobson choice; CR is a bad bill. But however bad the CR is, I think that allowing Donald Trump to take even more power through a closure of the government is a much worse option,” said Schumer.
“A closure would allow Doge to change to Overdrive … I would give Donald Trump and Dogle the keys of the city, the state and the country,” he continued.
Until now, only another Democrat in the Chamber, Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, has publicly said that he would vote to advance the Financing Law. With the Republicans controlling 53 seats, at least seven Democrats must support the procedural movement so that the bill moves to the final passage. Republicans seem to be largely united, although Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Ky, has promised to oppose the measure.
Schumer’s measure has enraged the Chamber Democrats, who gathered 40 miles away in Leesburg, Virginia, in their annual policy withdrawal. All but a Chamber Democrat, representative Jared Golden de Maine, voted against the six -month bill of President Mike Johnson on Tuesday.
Before the procedural vote on Friday, the Democratic women of the House of Representatives held a press conference and urged their Senate colleagues to hold the line against the project of the Republican Party.
“The American people are literally screaming from the roofs that this is an emergency of five alarms and that we cannot deliver the keys to the kingdom of this great and beautiful democracy that we love someone who has a total contempt, not only for the rule of law, but for the American life,” said representative Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, the maximum Democrat in the subcommittee house.
The Democrats of the House of Representatives and many Senate Democrats want Congress to approve a 30 -day Stopgap financing bill that would buy bipartisan negotiators more time to reach a one -year assignments agreement to finance the government.
“This is our opportunity to speak directly with the American people to say: ‘No.’ This law of only Republican is not enough, “said the president of the democratic Caucus of the House of Representatives, Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., Said Friday when he closed the three-day retirement. “Republicans continue to dismantle the government in recent months. They are already taking us to closing, that has been their goal and approach. We should not support those efforts.”
The legislation is not a typical measure of Stopgap, known as continuous or CR resolution, which simply extends financing at current levels. The 99 -page expenditure bill includes a slight increase in military spending and a $ 13 billion cut in national non -defense expenses. It was designed by Republican leaders, who made contributions from the White House and excluded the Democrats from the process.
The bill would also force the Columbia district to return to its 2024 fiscal year budget levels, reducing local spending by more than $ 1 billion, which could affect schools, police and other services.
In addition to that, Senator Patty Murray, D-Wash., The classification member of the Assignments Committee and other Democrats regretted that the bill is structured in a way that gives Trump administration too much flexibility on how to spend certain money pots. A Murray memorandum said that the measure of the Republican party creates “Granño funds so that the Trump administration remodes spending priorities, eliminates long -data programs, winners and losers.”
Speaking on the floor, the leader of the majority of the Senate, John Thune, RS.D., argued that legislators have been forced to approve another measure of Stopgap financing because the Democrats, who controlled the majority of the Senate in the last congress, did not complete the regular assignments process last year.
The Senate Assignments Committee had approved and sent to the 11th floor of the 12 bills of assignments that finance federal agencies and the legislative branch, said Thune, but Schumer never led them to vote.
“So today we are trying to finish last year’s work so we can start doing this year’s job,” Thune said Friday. “To be clear, Republicans are not delighted with another CR, but it is our best option to ensure that last year’s failure by the Democrats does not interfere with this year’s assignments process.”
