Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer is signaling he could plunge the country into a partial government shutdown if Republicans move forward with rescinding just a fraction of a percent of government spending.
The Senate is expected to vote on a request from the White House to claw back $1.1 billion in public broadcasting funding and $8.3 billion in foreign aid next week. Schumer has threatened that Democrats will reject a government funding deal for the upcoming fiscal year if Republicans pass President Donald Trump’s $9.4 billion rescission package, which could trigger a partial government shutdown at the end of September. (RELATED: Dems Have ‘Chosen Obstruction’, Sen GOP Leader Says, As Schumer Blocks Trump Noms From Swift Confirmation)
“Ask the Republicans why they are heading on this path,” Schumer said at a Senate Democratic leadership press conference Wednesday in response to a question citing his previous warnings about the alleged harmful effects of letting government funding lapse. “We are doing everything we can to keep the bipartisan appropriations process going. And they’re undermining it with rescissions, with pocket rescissions, with impoundment and every other way.”
Schumer’s implicit shutdown threat is a noticeable departure from his decision to avert a lapse in government funding in March by supplying the votes to pass a Trump-backed stopgap spending bill. The Democratic leader’s decision to avoid a government shutdown earlier in the year infuriated the party’s base, leading Schumer to postpone a scheduled book tour. Elected Democrats across the country criticized his leadership.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune criticized Schumer’s recent remarks appearing to use the rescissions package as leverage in the anticipated government funding showdown later this year. Schumer wrote a “Dear Colleague” letter Tuesday warning of “consequences that will be felt far beyond the halls of power” if Republicans claw back funding for public broadcasting and foreign aid.
“I was disappointed to see the Democrat leader … implicitly threaten to shut down the government,” Thune said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “But I’m hopeful that that is not the position of the Democrat Party, the Democrat conference here in the Senate, and that we can work together in the coming weeks to pass bipartisan appropriations bills.”
“Funding the government is our chief priority before October, but that won’t stop us from considering additional measures,” Thune said, in an implicit reference to the rescissions package.
Thune is up against a July 18 deadline to pass the rescissions package, which is subject to a simple majority vote. Failure to approve the clawback request by that timeline would force the president to spend the money as originally directed by lawmakers.
The House cleared the clawback measure 214 to 212 in June with four GOP lawmakers joining Democrats in opposing the rescissions package.
Though several moderate Senate Republicans have voiced concerns about rescinding some of the proposed DOGE cuts, some in the conference are warning that failure is not an option and that Senate Republicans must meet the July 18 deadline. The $9.4 billion rescissions request would be the first DOGE cuts codified by Congress out of the roughly $175 billion identified by the president’s cost-cutting commission.
“I think if the Republicans in the United States Senate do not pass the rescission package, after all the rhetoric about reducing spending, then they should hide their head in the bag,” Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy told reporters Tuesday. “And I think the White House will provide the bag.”
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