Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) warned his colleagues that allowing the government shutdown would only give President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk more “power,” so he is voting to keep it open.
According to Fox News, Schumer gave a plethora of reasons why he opposes the House-passed stopgap spending bill Thursday but insisted that the American people would suffer if it didn’t pass the Senate.
“I believe it is my job to make the best choice for the country to minimize the harms to the American people. Therefore, I will vote to keep the government open and not shut it down,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “I believe allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option.”
The spending bill, which is also known as a continuing resolution, will have a vote to limit debate after 1:15 p.m. Friday. However, a time has not yet been set for a final vote, and it is unclear whether there would be enough Democrat support to push the bill over the finish line.
“We want the attention of the American people, not focused on different bills that they would bring to the floor during the shutdown,” Schumer told reporters Thursday evening, “We’d rather focus on our message, which is beginning to work.”
Schumer stated that the Democrats are trying to send a message that the Trump administration, and likely by extension, Musk, are “hurting the middle class to give tax breaks for the billionaires,” before adding that he changed his mind because “there were not enough votes to pass it.”
“I thought I would let people know that,” Schumer said. “But there were a bunch of undecided votes. And as members study it and look at it, each is making his or her own decision.”
The spending bill would keep the government funded until the end of the Fiscal Year on Sept. 30. If the bill is not passed by 11:59 p.m. Friday, the government will officially enter a shutdown.
