Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that Democrats have enough votes to block the spending bill passed by the House GOP. This is his first statement about his party’s plans ahead of the Friday shutdown deadline.
Schumer urged Senate Republicans to work with Democrats on a short-term spending bill instead, while they continue to negotiate a full-year funding deal.
“Funding the government should be a bipartisan effort, but Republicans chose a partisan path, drafting their continuing resolution without any input — any input from congressional Democrats. Because of that, Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on the House,” he said on the Senate floor.
The bill passed by the House would keep the government running until September. Senate Republicans are expected to reject any attempts by Democrats to pass their own short-term stopgap bill.
Earlier in the day, Senate Democrats had a heated debate behind closed doors about how to handle the House’s government funding bill. The discussion lasted more than an hour.
Democrats were debating whether to vote for the bill or block it, risking a possible government shutdown. Some Democrats are also pushing for a bill to keep the government funded for 30 days while a long-term solution is worked out.
