U.S. Senate Republican Whip John Barrasso of Wyoming dared Senate Democrats this week to block an emergency bill to fund nearly the whole federal government.
In the end, enough Democrats went along with Republicans in a sometimes-raucous session Friday to pass the spending measure and avoid a shutdown.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer of New York had signaled Democrats would unite against the bill. He later changed his tune, saying he would vote for it.
Before the about-face, Barrasso quoted Schumer as saying in 2019 that shutting down the government is “self-defeating” and that it “accomplishes nothing but pain and suffering for the country, and it incurs an enormous political cost to the party shutting it down.”
“When did he say those things? Well, he said them in 2019,” Barrasso said. “They are as true today as they were then. Apparently, he has forgotten those things.”
Key Cloture Vote
The vote on final passage was 54-46. But the crucial vote was moments earlier to end debate on the bill — known as invoking cloture — which required 60 votes in order to tee up the final vote.
The vote on cloture was 62-38 in the affirmative. Since Republicans hold only 53 seats, they needed defections from the other side of the aisle to hit the 60-vote threshold.
Barrasso, the second-ranking Republican behind Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota, hammered home the party’s message before the vote: If there’s a shutdown, blame the Democrats led by Schumer.
“His burn-the-house attitude is what we’re dealing with,” Barrasso said of Schumer on the Senate floor before the vote. “It is irresponsible, it is reckless, and he’s trying to lead the Democrats over the cliff and hurt the American public in the process.”
‘Two Awful Choices’
Schumer said Friday that Democrats faced “two awful choices” — and a shutdown would be worse than passage of the spending bill to keep the government open.
Schumer said a shutdown would empower President Donald Trump and the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, led by Elon Musk.
“A shutdown will allow DOGE to shift into overdrive,” Schumer said, adding that Trump and Musk would pursue “maximum destruction” to free up funds for “tax breaks for billionaires.”
He and other Democrats said the one-year spending bill — known as a continuing resolution, or CR — called for devastating cuts to safety-net programs. Republicans disputed those claims and noted it calls for a hike in military spending.
The bill earlier this week passed the GOP-led House on a 317-313 vote with support from U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyoming.
Lummis Disappointed In Dems
U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming, voted for the bill along with Barrasso and lamented that Senate Democrats threatened to block the bill.
“It's disappointing that Senate Democrats have spent their entire week working to shut down the government,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “The fact is that this CR keeps our government open, fully funds veterans’ healthcare services, and ensures that we will be able to continue our work on President Trump's agenda.”
But U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Washington, said in a floor speech that the bill “hands a blank check to Elon Musk and Donald Trump on how our constituents’ dollars get spent.”
Friday’s Senate session included jeers and boos as senators brought up amendments, none of which passed. One was offered by fiscal conservative hawk Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, and the rest were from Democrats.
U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, said his amendment “shuts down the illegal Elon Musk operation.”
The government funding process is traditionally done through committee and floor votes on various bills. But when Congress does not do that, and funding expirations loom, CRs extend prior-year funds while sometimes changing the amounts.
The government was running on a short-term CR prior to this one. Funding would have run out Friday at midnight Eastern time.
