Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren called on Senate Democrats to refuse to participate in the bipartisan appropriations process for the upcoming fiscal year Wednesday, opening the door for Senate Democrats to back a partial government shutdown later this fall.
Warren, one of the most left-wing members of the Senate Democratic Caucus, argued that her party must take a hardball approach during appropriations negotiations this fall, citing her anger that Republicans circumvented Democrats’ objections to slash funding for public broadcasting and foreign aid in July. The Massachusetts Democrat’s dismissal of bipartisan government funding negotiations is expected to increase the pressure on Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer to support filibustering the party’s way into a partial government shutdown this September.
“Why should Democrats come to the table in good faith and throw our support behind a quote-unquote bipartisan bill, only for Republicans to turn around after the deal is done and, somewhere down the line, delete any of the parts Trump doesn’t like?” Warren said on the Senate floor Wednesday. “That’s like Republicans saying: ‘Let’s cut a deal to sell you a car today,’ and then a month from now, they come back and steal the wheels.”
Senate Democrats have said they are furious with Republicans following the successful passage of a rescissions package pushed by the White House to claw back just 0.1% of the federal government’s roughly $7 trillion budget. Warren dubbed the measure one of Trump’s “worst efforts” in her remarks.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune is facing a September 30 deadline to fund government operations for the upcoming fiscal year and has consistently maintained that the burden of avoiding a partial shutdown is on Senate Democrats. Government funding bills are subject a 60-vote threshold in the upper chamber, requiring Democrats to supply seven votes for passage in a scenario where every GOP senator is present and voting “yes.”
Warren’s calls for Senate Democrats to “fight back” rather than work with Republicans to clear bipartisan appropriations on the Senate floor comes as Democrats are engaged in an intraparty struggle over how hard to resist congressional Republicans and the Trump administration.
Schumer was subjected to biting criticism from his colleagues in March over his decision to support a GOP spending bill in order to avert a lapse in government funding. Warren notably said Schumer was “wrong” to vote to advancing the GOP spending measure and declined to say whether he should continue serving in the top Democratic role during a town hall in March.
Warren was one of eight Senate Democrats to vote against a procedural motion advancing a government funding bill on July 22.
“I’m asking my Democratic colleagues to join me in using the power we have to fight back,” Warren said on the floor Wednesday.
Thune has acknowledged that Schumer is under an immense amount of pressure from the far-left faction of his caucus to endorse a partial government shutdown. Another Democratic lawmaker, Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, has previously lambasted his colleagues for their shutdown threats and said he would work with Republicans to keep government operations running.
“The pressure is going to be enormous from the left wing of the party,” Thune told the Ruthless podcast Thursday, arguing that Schumer may bow to demands from his base to endorse a partial shutdown. “And increasingly, you’re seeing the tail wagging the dog in the Senate. So, you know, it’s Elizabeth Warren, it’s Bernie Sanders, it’s Cory Booker, Chris Murphy, kind of the left of the left in the Senate.”
Schumer has yet to announce whether he would supply enough votes to avert a shutdown this fall.
“If we end up with a Schumer shutdown at the end of the year, the Democrats are going to own that,” Thune said Tuesday at the Senate GOP leadership press conference. “In the meantime, we’re going to do everything we can to try and move the appropriations process forward.”
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