Senate Democrats on Tuesday dug in against a Republican-authored short-term government funding bill, increasing the likelihood of a partial government shutdown when fiscal year funding lapses at the end of the month.
House Republicans unveiled a seven-week continuing resolution that they describe as a "clean" stopgap — a short-term measure largely stripped of policy riders — but Senate Democrats signaled they will not support the proposal, leaving Senate Republican leaders without the Democratic votes they need to pass it before the Sept. 30 deadline.
Senate Republican Whip John Thune, a chief architect of the GOP effort in that chamber, said Democrats have voted repeatedly for short-term funding patches during the Biden administration and accused them of a new, partisan refusal to cooperate. "Ninety-six percent of the Democrats voted for all 13 of those," Thune said of prior continuing resolutions. "This is, again, a new practice that's been invented because of Trump Derangement Syndrome, and because these Democrats hate giving this president anything." Republican senators began branding the impasse a "Schumer Shutdown," blaming Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for his caucus’ unwillingness to back the GOP measure.
Senate Democrats said the current circumstances differ from past stopgaps and cited substantive objections. Schumer argued the dynamics changed after House Republicans passed legislation backed by the White House that would claw back billions in foreign aid and other funding and said Republicans did not engage in bipartisan negotiations on the measure. "We’re in a much different situation," Schumer told reporters, adding that Senate and House Republican leaders declined to meet with Democratic negotiators.
Democrats also pointed to specific policy concerns with the House bill beyond process: the absence of language limiting impoundment and the so-called pocket rescission authority, and the failure to extend Affordable Care Act premium subsidies that are scheduled to expire in December. Senate Appropriations Committee top Democrat Patty Murray said the lack of language addressing impoundments and rescissions was a central problem. Democrats contend an extension of ACA subsidies should be attached to a stopgap because insurers are setting rates ahead of the Nov. 1 open enrollment period.
Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, a Republican, said lawmakers could address an ACA subsidy extension after a short-term patch is enacted. "You can wait," Collins said, adding that eligibility criteria could be kept steady into next year with later legislative action.
Not all Republicans have embraced the short-term funding approach. Some GOP senators expressed frustration with continuing resolutions as a long-term budgeting tool and noted awkward political tradeoffs in the current measure. Sen. Rand Paul, who has criticized prior spending levels, argued the bill reflected the same topline spending figures that Republicans opposed under the Biden administration. "So any Republican who votes for this, I guess maybe they should apologize to Biden for being against his spending levels," Paul said. Sen. Rick Scott said he was not typically a fan of funding extensions and reiterated a preference for returning to a regular appropriations process.
Trump's public instruction to Republicans to pursue a partisan path — telling GOP lawmakers not to seek Democratic votes — has complicated prospects for a bipartisan agreement. Sen. Brian Schatz, a Democrat, said that if Republicans choose to "go it alone," Democrats would be within their rights to withhold support. Senate Democrats and Republicans are therefore negotiating not only the text of the stopgap but also whether to resume the bipartisan bargaining that has sometimes produced short-term funding deals.
House leaders characterized the seven-week proposal as narrowly tailored to avert an immediate lapse in funding while preserving congressional options for a longer-term deal. Senate Majority Leader John Thune will need Democratic votes to overcome procedural hurdles in the 50-50 Senate, and his capacity to secure them could determine whether Congress avoids a lapse in funding at the end of September.
The dispute underscores broader tensions over fiscal policy and process as lawmakers head toward a high-stakes fall schedule that includes annual appropriations, potential supplemental spending requests and a looming presidential election. With less than two weeks before the current funding authority expires, lawmakers from both parties said time to reach a compromise is limited.
If negotiations remain deadlocked, the government faces the prospect of partial shutdowns that would affect federal agencies and programs that rely on annual appropriations. Congressional leaders on both sides said they prefer to avoid a lapse in funding, but the dispute over process, the role of recent House measures and unresolved policy additions — including the ACA subsidies and impoundment provisions — left the path forward unclear as the deadline approaches.