Senator Schumer is making an attempt to block Republicans’ government funding deal, marking his first major fight with the Trump White House and his GOP colleagues. This government funding vote, which could come as early as Thursday, is one of the few times Democrats will have leverage over Republicans this year. 

Speaker Johnson passed the spending bill, known as a continuing resolution, on Tuesday, with all Republicans — except one — voting for the bill, along with one Democrat. The House then promptly left town, cancelling their scheduled votes on Wednesday to get a head start on their 12-day recess. The government is due to shut down at the end of the day on Friday if no agreement is reached. 

Senator Kaine tells the New York Sun that, after a lengthy lunch meeting on Wednesday, he and his colleagues came to the conclusion that Democrats would not give Republicans the votes necessary to break the filibuster. With Senator Paul voting no on the funding agreement, Republicans would need at least eight Democrats to break ranks in order to invoke cloture and pass the bill. 

“There was a pretty consistent theme that we wanna get amendments and that we are entitled to get an amendment vote, and we’re not gonna support cloture until we get that,” Mr. Kaine told the Sun just off the Senate floor on Wednesday. 

Mr. Kaine insisted that it wasn’t “a directive” from Mr. Schumer, but rather that the move “came out of a discussion” and the “vast majority” of Democrats agreed with the position. When asked if that meant there would not be eight Democratic votes for the funding deal, Mr. Kaine responded, “that’s right.”

“Republicans chose a partisan path, drafting their continuing resolution without any input … from congressional Democrats,” Mr. Schumer said in a speech on the floor after the lunch meeting. “Because of that, Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on the House C.R.” The Democratic leader said he wanted a 30-day funding extension so a bipartisan deal can be hammered out. 

A close ally of President Trump, Senator Mullin, seemed perfectly happy with Democrats’ position on Wednesday afternoon. 

“Well, they own the shutdown,” Mr. Mullin told the Sun with a smile as he bounced a small rubber ball up and down. “If the Democrats wanna shut down the government, that’s on them.”

Mr. Trump said the same during a bilateral meeting with the Irish prime minister in the Oval Office on Wednesday, mocking Mr. Schumer with his line that the Jewish New York senator is actually now a Palestinian. 

“People are gonna blame the Democrats,” Mr. Trump said of a possible shutdown. “Schumer is a Palestinian, as far as I’m concerned. You know, he’s become a Palestinian. He used to be Jewish — he’s not Jewish anymore. He’s a Palestinian.”

The House has already left town, meaning they would have to return if an amendment is added to the funding bill. House Democrats are holding a retreat at Leesburg, Virginia through the end of the week, though House Republicans have mostly returned to their home districts. 

Before their lunch meeting on Wednesday, Democratic senators were apprehensive about their path going forward. 

Senator Blumenthal told the Sun that he may not even vote for the bill if an amendment was added due to his concerns about Elon Musk’s role in the executive branch. The Connecticut senator railed against Mr. Musk’s DOGE team doing work at the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as the reported firings. Still, Mr. Blumenthal says those concerns may not be enough to keep him from voting yes. 

“The C.R. may enable more firings, but closing the government may be even more welcome to Elon Musk because it gives him an excuse to fire more people, and he can blame it on the Democrats,” Mr. Blumenthal told the Sun. “I’m leaning toward no … because I think it creates a slush fund for Donald Trump without any real guardrails or accountability to the Congress, and we should not be ceding the power of the purse in this way.”

Senator Fetterman had a more blunt assessment of the politics of this moment, telling the Sun that his fellow Democrats have only two choices: keep the government open despite disagreements with policy or process, or needlessly force a shutdown. 

“They’re going to vote [how] they want, but it’s two choices: shut the government down or just vote for a C.R. that you don’t agree … with,” Mr. Fetterman told the Sun. “I think that’s really the fundamental choice.”

Many Democrats dodged the question about how they felt about the funding bill altogether. Senator Cortez-Masto told reporters that she will “still assessing” the 99-page legislation which was made public on Saturday. Senator Rosen told reporters that we would know how she intends to vote once she actually casts her vote. When asked by the Sun if he had made his mind up about the legislation, Senator Reed simply shook his head from side to side.