Senate Democrats are running out of time to decide whether fighting President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s funding freezes is worth forcing a government shutdown.
Assuming House Republicans can successfully pass the six-month spending patch they plan to put on the floor next week, GOP senators will need help from at least eight Democrats to get a House-passed stopgap bill through the other chamber. And they could need more if other Republicans join Sen. Rand Paul in opposition.
Right now, Republicans have one Democrat committed: Sen. John Fetterman, who said Thursday that he’ll “never” be part of shutting the government down. He said it was “bullshit” that Democrats “would even rattle those sabers.”
Sen. Dick Durbin, the chamber’s No. 2 Democrat, said Thursday that he didn’t believe enough of his members were willing to support a full-year stopgap bill to get it through the Senate. But Democrats have clearly been keeping their options open — Senate Democratic leaders have avoided saying the party would blanket oppose a clean funding patch, and they’ve privately urged members to keep their powder dry.
Senators are listening, for now. Across roughly a dozen interviews, Senate Democrats largely declined to say they’d vote against a clean stopgap. Sen. Tim Kaine said he is “anti-shutdown” but declined to endorse Republicans’ plan. And swing-state Sen. Elissa Slotkin told Mia she was “open to all options” but “I gotta understand what protections we have that money we appropriate is going to be used right for the purposes it was appropriated for.”
The bill may not be totally clean. It’s expected to include measures that would avert cuts in pay for doctors treating Medicare patients and extend eased Medicare telehealth rules. Those provisions are expected to be narrow. But any additions could make passing a stopgap harder, given that fiscal conservatives don’t want more spending and Democrats would like to propose additions of their own.
Several Democrats — and some Republicans — want to give negotiators more time to hash out a deal on overall spending levels with top appropriators saying an agreement is imminent. But GOP Sen. Susan Collins, the chamber’s top appropriator, indicated Thursday that House Republicans would not support a shorter stopgap.
“I do not think the House is interested in that,” she told reporters, adding, “I don’t know what’s going to happen next week, but I’m determined to prevent a government shutdown.”
What else we’re watching:
Al Green censure: The House Freedom Caucus is pushing the speaker to hold a floor vote on its resolution that would strip Democratic Rep. Al Green of his Financial Services and Homeland Security Committee assignments after his outbursts during Trump’s joint address to Congress. The Freedom Caucus said in a post on X that “we expect” Johnson to bring it up next week, but he hasn’t made any commitments. Meanwhile, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called hard-liners “malignant clowns” for pushing the resolution.
GOP on VA cuts: Republicans on Capitol Hill have largely stayed quiet on Trump and Musk’s cuts of federal programs, but they’re making an exception for cuts to the VA. That reached a crescendo this week as the Trump administration raised the possibility of large-scale dismissals of Veterans Affairs employees.
Meredith Lee Hill and Jordain Carney contributed to this report.
