Senate Democrats will not support a short-term spending measure passed by the House, making government shutdown this weekend increasingly likely. Republicans drafted the bill, and Democrats in the Senate oppose it intensely because they feel it does not represent their priorities.
After a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, Senate Democrats said they were dismayed, signaling there are not enough votes to approve the legislation in its current form. Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.) signaled that Democrats will not go forward unless they can present amendments to the bill. He added that Democrats did not participate in the bill drafting and are now demanding some amendments before they will vote for the bill. “We want a chance to get an amendment vote or two,” Kaine told reporters.
Republicans need a minimum of eight Democratic votes to bring the bill in the Senate forward if they want to obtain the 60 votes necessary for cloture. Without those, the government will not get funded, and the government stands to shut down as the end of the fiscal year approaches this Saturday.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has been in a sensitive spot throughout the negotiations. He spent weeks pushing his Senate colleagues not to push for a shutdown, claiming that it would be harmful to the party politically. However, Schumer has also insisted that any bill to fund the government must be bipartisan. The House bill, however, was drafted by Republicans alone, and many Senate Democrats are irritated that their concerns are being left on the back burner.
This is a moment of crisis for the negotiations, with Schumer caught between two pressures: his desire to avoid a shutdown and mounting pressure from grass-roots Democratic activists to be more aggressive with President Trump and his agenda.
With Senate Democrats digging in, all eyes will be on whether they can win the amendments they want or a shutdown becomes inevitable this weekend.
