Top Senate Democrat Schumer backs CR over government shutdown

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Thursday he intends to vote to advance a Republican-drafted stopgap funding bill to keep the federal government operating through the rest of fiscal 2025.

Unless a continuing resolution was approved Friday, the government would partially shut down at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. A vote was expected Friday after Exchange Monitor deadline. 

In a statement on the Senate floor and posts on the X social media platform, Schumer said the bill that would fund the government until Sept. 30, is preferable to a government shutdown. A shutdown, the senior Democrat said, would give President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk an even freer hand to slash government programs.

“If we enter a shutdown, Congressional Republicans would weaponize their majorities to cherry-pick which parts of government to reopen,” Schumer said on X. “A shutdown would give Donald Trump and Elon Musk carte blanche to destroy vital government services at a significantly faster rate than they can right now. 

The Schumer announcement did not go over well with some members of his own party. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) blasted the move. 

Earlier Thursday, New Mexico’s Senators Ben Ray Luján and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee said they opposed the Senate stopgap funding bill, saying it would Trump and Musk too much power. 

Nevertheless, with Schumer planning to vote in favor, it is increasingly possible that enough of the Senate Democrats will follow him to push the measure over 60 votes and avoid a shutdown. 

The resolution is considered “clean” for excluding any major policy or funding changes beyond 2024 levels. However, the funding levels are different from what the House requested for the Office of Environmental Management (EM) and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). 

The NNSA would get $19.3 billion for weapons activities in the stopgap bill as opposed to the $20.3 billion the House energy and water appropriations subcommittee requested for fiscal 2025. For NNSA’s defense nuclear nonproliferation, the continuing resolution would appropriate $2.39 billion compared to the House subcommittee’s request of $2.45 billion.

According to a spokesperson for Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), ranking member of the appropriations energy and water subcommittee, there are the following changes from the House energy and water bill:

• “Power Marketing Administrations – Does not provide the requested budgets for daily operations and maintenance activities at the Power Marketing Administrations (PMAs). The PMAs provide electricity to more than 60 million people across 34 states, and without sufficient operating funds, customers are likely to experience energy cost increases and power disruptions.
• Corps of Engineers’ Civil Works Projects – Cuts $1.4 billion (44 percent) from Corps Construction activities and all project funding levels will be at the discretion of the administration, including for over 1,000 projects throughout the country that would otherwise be directed by Congress. These projects keep commerce safely flowing on our waterways, manage flood risk, and restore ecosystems. 
• Nuclear Weapons Proliferation and Nuclear Terrorism – Cuts $185 million (7 percent) for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation programs, including from programs that prevent terrorists from acquiring nuclear and radioactive material; remove radioactive materials at risk of being misused or causing a catastrophic accident; and detect and monitor foreign nuclear fuel cycle and weapons development activities, nuclear material movement or diversion, and nuclear explosions.
• Department of Energy’s Climate-Related Energy and Science Programs – Does not provide guidance to the $15 billion in climate-related funding that will then be at the whim of the administration.”

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), whose district abuts the DOE Hanford site, voted for the continuing resolution (CR) but told the Exchange Monitor that “as an appropriator” he “certainly would have preferred to get the appropriation bills but that was not an option, so here we are. But I never want to see the government shut down either, because I’ve lived through that and that ends up costing us more.”

“I just want to make sure that those are the bills that are considered and not getting back to this one,” Newhouse added, referring to the 12 appropriations bills that passed through committee including the Energy and Water bill that would fund the NNSA.

Meanwhile, Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-N.M.), whose district abuts Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories, voted against the bill. The lawmaker told the Monitor that “it’s not a CR. It’s a six month funding bill, so it will be the funding for the rest of fiscal year 25.”

“There is not congressional language about what we want done in any of the programs,” Fernandez added. “It gives [Elon] Musk and Trump the ability to cut and slash as they want.” 

“The idea that they would slash positions, that they would fire the people we need to keep us safe in the nuclear arena shows that they don’t know what they’re doing.,” Fernandez said. 

Fernandez also said the bill would “hit New Mexico hard” because it has a “larger federal workforce than other states, closer to 20%… so the ramifications are horrible.”

“I would not vote for the CR if there weren’t the prospect of our reconciliation package that begins to give us what we need,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said to reporters, including the Exchange Monitor, outside the Senate floor. “But considering what’s in the CR with the anomalies and its light plus-ups, we’re going to need more than 150 billion.” 

Wicker said he would need a minimum of $175 billion for defense.