In a dramatic break with much of their party, ten Senate Democrats voted alongside Republicans on Friday to pass a six-month funding bill, averting a government shutdown with just hours to spare. The move defied a majority of the chamber’s Democrats who opposed the measure, underscored deep divisions over how to confront President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress.
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Ahead of the vote, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada were among the first Democrats to publicly back the Republican funding bill, arguing that a shutdown would only strengthen Trump’s hand. Seven more Democrat joined them during the final vote: Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Angus King of Maine, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Gary Peters of Michigan and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire.
“This was not an easy decision,” Cortez Masto, who represents a state that Trump carried last year, said in a statement. “I’m outraged by the reckless actions of President Trump, Elon Musk, and Republicans in control of Congress, so I refuse to hand them a shutdown where they would have free rein to cause more chaos and harm.”
For many Democrats, the bill represented more than just an unfavorable spending deal—it was a moment to push back against what they see as the Trump Administration’s creeping executive overreach. The legislation stripped away numerous funding directives, giving Trump the power to reallocate money as he saw fit without fear of judicial intervention.
The spending measure, which passed the House earlier in the week and was presented to the Senate as a take-it-or-leave-it proposition, allows for broad discretion in spending cuts while trimming non-defense spending by $13 billion and boosting military funding by $6 billion. In the Senate, 37 Democrats opposed the bill along with Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who wanted the measure to codify Trump’s cuts to foreign aid.
Schumer’s decision to support the bill marked a turn from earlier in the week when he sought a 30-day extension to negotiate a bipartisan compromise. His pivot drew sharp criticism from House Democrats, who had united against the measure and pressured their Senate colleagues to reject it. At a retreat in Leesburg, Va. on Thursday night, they made urgent appeals to their Senate counterparts, with lawmakers texting and calling senators throughout the day. “I think there is a deep sense of outrage and betrayal,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York told reporters at the retreat. “And this is not just about progressive Democrats. This is across the board. The entire party.”
Prior to the vote, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democratic appropriator, published a list of examples of programs that the measure could allow Trump to change, such as diverting resources from combating fentanyl to funding mass deportation efforts and giving him more authority to pick which health-care or mental health programs to implement.
Adding to the opposition was the bill’s treatment of Washington, D.C., which would have been forced to roll back its budget to the prior year’s levels, requiring $1.1 billion in cuts. Schumer said immediately prior to the vote that he had negotiated a deal with Senate Republicans to pass a D.C. funding fix—but the measure would still need to pass the House, which is on recess. Additionally, the bill clawed back another $20 billion in IRS funding, building on similar rescissions from previous years.
The political implications of voting with Republicans are uncertain, but the vote ensured that the government would remain funded through September, averting furloughs for federal workers and disruptions to key services. However, the anger within the Democratic caucus suggests that the battle over government funding is far from over.
It could also spell trouble for Schumer, who has led Senate Democrats since 2017. While no senator has publicly called for his ouster, murmurs of discontent have grown louder, particularly among progressives who feel he has conceded too much ground to Republicans.
This story will be updated.
