The Senate adopted a house -approved government financing bill that averts a government closure to be triggered at the end of the day Friday.
The Senate voted 54 to 46 to adopt the bill. The approval of the bill follows several Democrats who vote with the Senate’s minority leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., to keep the financing bill in progress despite blowback from other members of their party.
Senator Angus King, an independent who cauces with the Democrats, and late. Jeanne Shaheen voted for the bill. All other Democrats voted against it.
Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., Was on the only Republican who cast a vote against the Bill.
Previously, 10 Senate Democrats provided the necessary votes to allow a test voting to move forward. The Democrats voted with minority leader Chuck Schumer to keep the financing bill moving forward despite blowback from other members of their party.
The vote comes after Schumer went to the Senate floor on Friday morning to defend his decision to support the Republican short-lived financing bill that has drawn criticism from other Democrats.
His surprise, which was only announced on Thursday night – one day after he said he and the Democrats would try to block the bill – means that there will be almost certainly democratic votes to promote the measure for a final Senate vote on Friday just hours before the shutdown deadline.
“As everyone knows, government financing expires at midnight tonight. As I announced yesterday, I will vote to keep the government open. I think it is the best way to minimize the damage that the Trump administration will do for the American people,” Schumer said Friday.
He said he believes that the short-term financing bill-or continued decision-making a “bad bill,” but said he thinks that if the government were to shut down, it would be a far worse result for the country.
“CR is a bad bill. But as bad as CR is, I think it’s a far worse to let Donald Trump even take much more power through a government closure a far worse opportunity,” Schumer said.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer speaks on the floor of the Senate, 14 Mar. 2025.
Senate TV
Schumer said he believed that a government’s shutdown would mean that President Donald Trump and Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) would have even more authority to “destroy important public services at a much faster speed.”
He said they would also have the power to decide which federal employees are considered essential – potentially giving them more power to dismiss or shoot more government workers and close federal agencies.
“A shutdown would allow DOGE to switch to overdrive. Let me repeat, a shutdown allows DOGE to switch to overdrive. It would give Donald Trump and Doge the keys to the city, the state and the country,” he said. “Donald Trump and Elon Musk would be free to destroy important public services at a much faster speed than they can right now and over a much wider area of destruction that they would give.”
He continued, “in a shutdown, Donald Trump and Doge will have the power to determine what is considered essential and what is not and their views on what is not important would be means and vicious and would decimate vital services and cause unimaginable harm to the American people.”
“Musk has told everyone that he wants a closure because he knows it will help him reach his horrible goal of just decimating the federal government from one end to the other. In other words, if the government had to shut down, Doge has a plan in place to exploit the crisis for maximum destruction,” Schumer said.
“A shutdown would be the best distraction that Donald Trump could ask for,” he added.
Schumer also defended some of his Senate’s democratic colleagues who have come out in contrast to the short -term financing bill. He recognized the hard decisions they like a caucus had to weigh.
“Our Caucus members have been torn between two terrible alternatives and my colleagues, and I have struggled with what alternative would be worse for the American people,” Schumer said.
President Donald Trump speaks to the press as he meets with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, March 13. 2025.
Pool via AP
Trump praised Schumer in a post on his social media platform on Friday and said it took the “gut” of the New York senator to signal his support to the GOP bill.
“Congratulations to Chuck Schumer for doing the right thing – took” intestines “and courage! The big tax cuts, la four fix, debt ceiling and so much more coming,” Trump put on the truth social.
“We should all work together on the very dangerous situation. A non -Pass would be a Landstroyer, approval will lead us to new heights. Again, really good and smart features of Senator Schumer. This can lead to something big for the United States, a whole new direction and beginning,” Trump wrote.
Two separate letters were sent to Schumer on Friday, and called on the senators to reject the GOP continuing resolution – one from the beginner California Rep. Derek Tran and the other from Ranking Member of House Previsions Committee Rep. Rosa Delauro from Connecticut.
Trans Letter, which has 66 signatures so far and is directly addressed to Schumer, says “as members of the Democratic House, we write to express our strong opposition to the passage of a partial continued decision that potentially legitimizes President Trump and the Republican Party’s settlement of the government.”
“We encourage you to reject the Partisan continued decision that comes in front of the Senate and stands with the American people in opposing these Drakonian Republican cuts. All parties must return to the negotiating table and work across party lines to keep the government open in a responsible way,” the legislators wrote.
Delauro’s letter coming from democratic legislators in the appropriation committee repeated similar feelings.
“As members of the House Committee for Grants, we urge our Democratic colleagues in the Senate to reject the Partisan and Harmful Continued Decision that will only serve to enable President Trump, Elon Musk and the ongoing efforts of the Republican Party to unilaterally and illegally destroy the agencies and programs that serve the US people,” said the accusations.
“We encourage all Senate Democrats to stand with the House Democrats and with the American people reject this continued decision,” they added.
The former speaks Nancy Pelosi seemed to distance himself from Schumer’s decision, threw Democrats supporting the House GOP bill.
“America has experienced a Trump closure before – but this harmful legislation only makes it worse. Democrats must not buy into this false choice. We must fight back for a better way. Listen to the women, for the people,” she said in a statement Friday.
At the same time, Pelosi welcomes the Hus Democrats for their almost unanimous vote against the measure.
“I greet leader Hakeem Jeffries for his brave rejection of this false choice, and I am proud of my colleagues in the Democratic House for their overwhelming vote against this bill,” she said.
ABC News’ Isabella Murray contributed to this report.
