The United States has narrowly avoided a government shutdown after the Senate approved a crucial spending bill. Backed by Republicans and signed into law by President Donald Trump, the legislation secures funding for the next six months. However, as CNN reports, the decision has sparked controversy, revealing internal divisions within the Democratic Party.
Senate Approves Funding Amid Democratic Divisions
The Senate voted 54-46 in favour of the stopgap funding bill. Two Democrats—Jeanne Shaheen and Angus King (an independent who caucuses with Democrats)—joined Republicans in supporting the measure, while only one Republican, Rand Paul, opposed it.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who initially voted to advance the measure, ultimately cast a “no” vote in the final count.
Schumer defended his decision to allow the bill to proceed, arguing that it was the lesser of two bad options:
“I believe it is the best way to minimise the harm that the Trump administration will do to the American people,” Schumer said.
Clearly, this is a Hobson’s choice. The CR is a bad bill, but as bad as the CR is, I believe allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option.
Despite Schumer’s justification, the move ignited strong opposition from within his party. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez described the decision as a “huge slap in the face”, warning that it “codifies the chaos and reckless cuts that Elon Musk has been pursuing” and enables a “robbing of our federal government to finance tax cuts for billionaires”.
Political and Economic Implications of the Funding Bill
The spending package largely preserves funding levels set by the Biden administration, but introduces significant shifts.
It increases military spending by $6 billion, directing funds towards border security, veterans’ healthcare, and defence-related initiatives, while simultaneously cutting non-defence spending by approximately $13 billion, impacting various domestic programmes.
Initially, the bill also proposed a $1 billion reduction in federal funding for Washington, D.C., raising local concerns. However, the Senate approved a separate measure to maintain the city’s budget, though its fate in the House remains uncertain.
Throughout the process, Democrats struggled to push an alternative 30-day funding resolution, which had little chance of gaining enough support. Some within the party criticised Schumer’s handling of the bill, seeing it as a missed opportunity to take a stronger stand against Trump’s policies.
Once I had voted for cloture, it was an opportunity to pass the bill, and I thought it was more honest to vote for it,” Senator Jeanne Shaheen told CNN.
I thought, much as I didn’t like the CR, a government shutdown would be worse and would give Trump and Elon Musk and the DOGE operation more of an opportunity to fire people, to shut down agencies, and to close the work of the government.
A Strategic Win for Republicans and the White House
For the Republican Party, the passage of the funding bill marks a significant political victory. Senator Ted Cruz dismissed Democratic opposition as “political theatre” and praised the result, stating :
The government is funded, let’s get back to work.
President Donald Trump, who supported the bill, expressed rare bipartisan praise for Schumer’s decision to let the bill advance:
“I appreciate Senator Schumer, and I think he did the right thing, really. I’m very impressed by that.”
While the bill ultimately passed, internal tensions within the Democratic Party remain unresolved. Some lawmakers have questioned Schumer’s leadership, though no open challenges have been made. Senator Martin Heinrich, a key figure in the party, suggested that discussions about leadership should remain internal :
That’s a conversation for inside the caucus. I’m not going to debate that out here.
Other Democrats acknowledged the difficult political landscape, with Senator Mark Warner stating :
I think that Leader Schumer has been very effective in a lot of battles, but we also need to — these are new times, and we need to all come together.
And so, you know, second-guessing Leader Schumer out here isn’t going to accomplish the kind of community that we’re going to need to be able to stand up to the president. So, we’ll have that conversation inside caucus.
While some Democrats disagreed with the bill’s passage, they acknowledged that the alternative—a prolonged government shutdown under Trump’s administration—could have led to greater instability.
I voted no on the CR. I heard that overwhelmingly from folks, and again, recognising I got tons of federal workers. But I have total respect for the folks who reached another conclusion, and the idea that they would have had a shutdown that would have put us into the abyss with, unfortunately, parts of this administration, doesn’t follow the law,” said one Democratic senator.
“I think the Democrats need to have a pro-growth agenda that recognises fairness, and that is, frankly, not the debate though, that we just took place. That we just took place, it was two awful choices.”
