Top US Senate Democrat Schumer signals party support for spending Bill to avert govt shutdown

WASHINGTON – Top US Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer has said he will vote to advance a Republican stopgap funding Bill, signalling that his party will provide the votes to avert a government shutdown.

“I will vote to keep the government open and not shut it down,” he said in a speech to the Senate on March 13.

Mr Schumer acknowledged the difficulty of his decision, which will put him on record as supporting a Bill that was written only by Republicans and has drawn fierce attacks from Democrats. The Bill passed the Republican-controlled House of Representatives earlier this week.

At a press conference later on March 13, Mr Schumer did not provide details on how other Senate Democrats would vote on March 14 before a midnight deadline when current funding expires for programmes other than Social Security retirement benefits and Medicare and Medicaid health insurance for the elderly, poor and disabled.

“As members study it (the Bill) and look at it, each is making his own decision,” the New York senator said.

Mr Schumer said he was still discussing with Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune the possibility of senators being allowed to present amendments to the Bill.

On March 12, Mr Schumer floated the idea of Democrats offering an amendment for a one-month extension of current funding, instead of Republicans’ approach of a 6½-month extension through the fiscal year that ends on Sept 30.

The aim would be to give senators more time to write detailed Bills tailored for this fiscal year instead of relying mainly on last year’s approach to spending.

But Democrats are unlikely to have the votes to pass such an amendment even if it is allowed to be voted upon.

Blocking the Republican Bill that was passed by the House on March 12 would have required the support of at least 41 of Mr Schumer’s Democrats and would have triggered a partial government shutdown, which Democrats have long opposed as needless chaos.

Democrats’ wariness of a shutdown was heightened by Republican President Donald Trump’s rapid-fire campaign to unilaterally shutter many federal operations, which Democrats note is already causing disruption.

In laying out his rationale for voting for a spending Bill that Democrats say short-changes social safety net programmes, Mr Schumer told reporters: “In effect, a shutdown gives Trump and his minions the keys to the city and the country and I thought that had to be avoided.”

Mr Schumer said it would have allowed the White House and billionaire Elon Musk, whom Mr Trump has charged with sweeping powers to cut government staffing levels and costs, to decide which federal agencies to reopen and when.

The White House did not immediately comment on Mr Schumer’s announcement. REUTERS