WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate averted a government shutdown on Friday, adopting a spending bill that keeps federal funds flowing through September but also slashes $13 billion in nondefense spending.
The 54-46 vote largely hewed to party lines. U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock of Georgia joined all but one Democrat in opposing the measure. One Republican also voted against the bill. The Senate’s two independents, who caucus with Democrats, split with one voting for and the other against.
The outcome Friday night was expected after a more dramatic showdown earlier in the day where nine Senate Democrats and one independent sided with Republicans to move forward legislation. Their votes were needed to reach the 60 votes required to avoid a filibuster.
The Democrats, led by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, insisted that a government shutdown, which could be prolonged by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk to further reduce the number of federal workers and programs, was the worst of two very bad choices.
“For sure, the Republican bill is a terrible option,” the New York Democrat said in a floor speech Thursday evening. “It is deeply partisan. It doesn’t address far too many of this country’s needs. But I believe allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far-worse option.”
Warnock blamed Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress and the White House, for insisting on a spending plan requiring agencies to downsize while also giving the White House more power to make spending decisions contrary to what Congress has approved.
“This is their CR,” Warnock said of the GOP’s bill, known as a “continuing resolution.” “They’ve got the majority in the House, the Senate, they own the White House — at least Trump thinks he owns it — and either outcome would have been terrible. I’m clear about that. This CR is terrible. Shut down would be terrible.”
While a shutdown is off the table for now, the conversation shifts to the rifts the debate has exposed among Democrats.
In the House, all but one Democrat voted against the legislation. And its top officials, including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, openly lobbied senators to reject the continuing resolution even if it meant a shutdown that would shutter agencies and furlough nonessential workers.
Pelosi went as far as to put out a statement saying she disagreed with Schumer’s decision to vote with Republicans to provide the 60-vote threshold needed to move the legislation forward.
“Donald Trump and Elon Musk have offered the Congress a false choice between a government shutdown or a blank check that makes a devastating assault on the well-being of working families across America,” the California Democrat said. “Let’s be clear: neither is a good option for the American people. But this false choice that some are buying instead of fighting is unacceptable.”
U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop of Albany joined Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee in signing a letter Friday urging Schumer to reject the bill. Atlanta Congresswoman Nikema Williams was among 66 Democrats who signed a different letter expressing similar sentiments.
Jeffries and his top deputies, who spent the past few days at a retreat in rural Virginia, even made an unscheduled visit to the Capitol on Friday ahead of the procedural vote in a last-ditch attempt to sway Schumer. Jeffries said he disagreed with the way Schumer and other Senate Democrats were framing their decision, calling it a “false choice.”
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