Some Senate Democrats, itching for a major showdown with Republicans, are advocating for their party to filibuster their way into a government shutdown this fall.
Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy is pushing a hardball approach during ongoing government funding negotiations, arguing that Senate Democrats should not work with Republicans to pass bipartisan bills to fund government operations for the upcoming fiscal year. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer is under pressure from the leftward flank of his party to ratchet up his resistance to the president, raising the prospect the top Senate Democrat could follow Murphy’s lead and decline to support a government funding deal in September — sparking a shutdown.
“Every single day, there’s new evidence that our democracy is falling, and you’ve got to take stands. You have to take fights,” Murphy told Politico in an interview. “I just worry — every time that we go along with these appropriations bills, we’re putting a bipartisan veneer of endorsement on an illegal process that’s ultimately part of his [Trump’s] campaign to destroy our democracy.”
The three-term senator has emerged as one of the loudest critics of the president during the first 200 days of Trump’s second term — voting against nearly all of the president’s nominees and Trump-backed legislation that has passed the upper chamber with bipartisan support. Murphy joined other leading Trump critics, including Democratic Texas Rep. Jasmine Crockett, on the first stop of the “F*** Around And Flip The House” tour on August 3 and is rumored to be considering a presidential run in 2028.
Murphy’s resistance to working with Republicans to passing appropriations bills comes as Senate Majority Leader John Thune is facing a September 30 deadline to prevent government operations from lapsing. The majority leader has repeatedly stated that Republicans are willing to work with Democrats to net the necessary 60 votes to keep government operations running and has warned his counterparts that Democrats will suffer the consequences if they cause a “Schumer Shutdown.”
Murphy is signaling to his fellow Democrats that they should resist Republicans rather than seek cooperation during the appropriations process, claiming the president “doesn’t give a fuck what we write” into appropriations bills that fund specific government operations.
He was among a handful of Senate Democratic Caucus members to vote “no” on passing three government funding bills before the Senate adjourned for the August state work period. Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren — a leading far-left voice in the caucus — also opposed the appropriations bills and has called on Schumer to “fight back” rather than work with Republicans to fund the government.
Schumer has yet to clarify how he will approach the government funding showdown that will come to a head in September. The lead Democrat published a lengthy “dear colleague” letter in July threatening to plunge the country into a partial shutdown if Republicans took up another package to claw back government funding over Democrats’ objections. However, Schumer backed the three government funding bills that passed prior to the August recess and has signaled that Democrats will support bipartisan funding talks — at least for the moment.
Thune has acknowledged the pressure Schumer is under from his base to endorse a shutdown after coming under scathing criticism in March for supplying the requisite votes to fund the government for the remainder of the fiscal year.
“Increasingly, you’re seeing the tail wagging the dog in the Senate,” Thune said on the Ruthless podcast in July. “So, you know, it’s Elizabeth Warren, it’s [Independent Vermont Sen.] Bernie Sanders, it’s [Democratic New Jersey Sen.] Cory Booker, Chris Murphy, kind of the left of the left in the Senate.”
A spokesperson for Murphy did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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