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In the wake of votes by a handful of key Democrats, led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, to pass a GOP-led continuing resolution funding federal operations through the end of September, fissures have expanded within the Democratic Party on how best to counter Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s ongoing assault on government agencies.
The resolution, which cuts non-defense spending by $13 billion and increases defense spending by approximately $6 billion, includes—among other steep cuts—a 57 percent slashing of the Department of Defense’s medical research programs; a 44 percent cut to Army Corps of Engineers projects, which build and maintain essential infrastructure; and more than $3 billion in cuts to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s community development, rental assistance, and homelessness services programs.
Congressional Republicans near-unanimously backed the resolution, though some lamented losses to programs in their communities. Most Democrats, meanwhile, voted against it—except for a contingent led by Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). This marked a “clear division in strategy” between Schumer and House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, also of New York, Delaware Democratic Sen. Chris Coons told the press.
Jeffries said that he and other Democratic opponents of the resolution “do not support a bill that is designed to hurt the American people,” arguing that the GOP presented a “false choice” between a “reckless” bill and a government shutdown.
Schumer’s case that a shutdown would only put more power in the hands of the executive branch has drawn the ire of many of his colleagues. “As bad as passing the [resolution] is,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Thursday, “allowing Donald Trump to take even more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option.”
But the bill itself gives Trump and Musk more power over government spending, since it doesn’t specify how signficant parts of the funding are to be allocated. Through the bill, for example, the White House—rather than Congress—will now be able to determine which Army Corps of Engineers construction projects are funded.
“It is a huge move to give the White House and DOGE more power of the purse—they will have much more discretion over how to spend money,” Charles Kieffer, who served in senior positions in the White House budget office under the Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Clinton administrations, told the Washington Post. Jessica Riedl, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute, agreed: “It absolutely opens up more flexibility for Trump.”
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the top Democratic member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, called the bill a “slush fund continuing resolution that would give Donald Trump and Elon Musk more power over federal spending”—and provided receipts.
New York Democratic Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez was one of the loudest voices against the bill—and one of the most notable against Schumer. “I think there is a deep sense of outrage and betrayal,” she told reporters in Washington. Schumer and his allies, she said, might as well “completely roll over and give up on protecting the Constitution.”
While the impending government shutdown may have been halted, something new is brewing: a change in winds around Democratic leadership.
In a shift from Ocasio-Cortez’s long stretch as a relative outsider on the party’s left, many in the Democratic Party seem to share her sentiments of betrayal toward the Senate minority leader and longtime top Democrat. Indivisible, a progressive group, put out a press release calling on Schumer to step down; privately, some House Democrats are pressuring Ocasio-Cortez to primary Schumer in 2028, CNN reports.
Schumer addressed the backlash in an interview published today in the New York Times, defending his vote and leadership—”I had to do what I had to do,” Schumer told the Times—while also declining to take a position on whether Trump-aligned New York City Mayor Eric Adams should resign, and rejecting allegations that Israel is perpetuating genocide in the Gaza Strip.
