Shutdown Averted: Democrats Help Pass Republican CR Bill

House Democrats’ last ditch effort to get Sen. Schumer to change his mind failed. Ten Democrats helped defeat a potential filibuster and moved the bill to a vote. It was passed with two Democrats joining Republicans in the final vote.

The Senate passed a six-month funding bill Friday to avert a government shutdown hours ahead of the midnight deadline, sending it to President Donald Trump to sign into law.

The vote was 54-46, with two Democrats joining all but one Republican in voting yes. Earlier Friday, the bill cleared a key procedural hurdle with the help of 10 Democrats in a 62-38 vote. Sixty votes were needed to defeat a Democratic filibuster…

In addition to Schumer, nine other Democrats voted to advance the bill: Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Gary Peters of Michigan, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, and Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats.

But just two of those Democratic Caucus members — Shaheen and King — voted yes on the underlying funding bill.

So there were nine Democrats plus Angus King, an independent, who voted to advance the bill. All of them will now probably get the full treatment from angry progressives in the House as well as those in the base of the party who had started to refer to this as the “Schumer surrender.” 

The Republican CR to fund the government just passed the procedural hurdle in the Senate because of these Democrats:

Chuck Schumer
Catherine Cortez Masto
Dick Durbin
Brian Schatz
Angus King
Maggie Hassan
John Fetterman
Gary Peters
Kirsten Gillibrand
Jeanne Shaheen

Shame on you… pic.twitter.com/f9Mzy40ACx

— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) March 14, 2025

There was already talk about primarying Schumer. Will they do the same to the others? Two of the Democrats who voted for this, Sens. Gary Peters and Jeanne Shaheen, have already announced they will not be running for reelection, which probably made this easier for them. Sen. Gillibrand’s support was not much of a surprise as she had been heard screaming at other Democrats about the possibility of a shutdown.

Gillibrand was reportedly heard “screaming” Thursday during a raucous meeting with her Democratic Senate colleagues on how to handle the CR vote. 

The New York Democrat was yelling so loudly during the private lunch on Capitol Hill that her voice could be heard through the room’s “thick wood doors,” according to Fox News. 

“She seems to be making the case against allowing the government to shut down,” Punchbowl News reporter Andrew Desiderio wrote on X, after eavesdropping on the tense meeting, which lasted for more than an hour.

Also surprising is some of the people who didn’t vote for it despite facing reelection in less than two years.

Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia, who will face voters next year, said in a statement that he was against the legislation in part because it failed “to impose any constraints on the reckless and out-of-control Trump administration.”

“Both parties in Congress must fulfill our Constitutional obligation to check the president,” Mr. Ossoff said.

Whatever happens now, the big story is that the Democratic party is deeply divided and angry about this outcome. The left-flank is using this issue to make people forget about the much bigger loss Democrats suffered just a few months ago.

We’ve hit 10,000 signatures on this petition — at least ten thousand people refusing to donate to Senate Democrats until Mr. Schumer is replaced as leader. Let’s keep it going. Share widely and make your anger known. Let’s demand action.https://t.co/17DiztOgS1

— Charlotte Clymer 🇺🇦 (@cmclymer) March 14, 2025

Schumer even turned on the Sunrise folks. What a meanie.

BREAKING: Chuck Schumer arrested 11 young people who were at his office demanding he fight for our generation and block Trump’s disastrous budget. He wouldn’t even face them.

No more cowardice. Step up or step aside. pic.twitter.com/aflH1x2G2H

— Sunrise Movement 🌅 (@sunrisemvmt) March 14, 2025

Dodging the shutdown was their best option, but the outcome still looks pretty bad. They were in the minority to start with and are now split into factions that are furious with each other. Hard to see how that helps anyone but President Trump and the GOP.