US Senate passes bill to avert shutdown, House Democrats turn on Schumer for caving
The top Senate Democrat backed down on blocking the Republican bill, exposing a rift with party members hoping to stand up to Trump
The US Senate on Friday passed a stopgap spending bill, averting a partial government shutdown, after Democrats backed down in a stand-off driven by anger over US President Donald Trump’s campaign to slash the federal workforce.
After days of heated debate, top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer broke the logjam on Thursday night, saying that he would vote to allow the bill to advance. Schumer said he did not like the bill but believed that triggering a shutdown would be a worse outcome as Trump and his adviser Elon Musk were moving swiftly to slash spending.
The Senate voted 54-46 to pass the bill and send it to Trump for signing into law, after fending off four amendments.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives earlier this week passed the measure, which largely leaves spending steady at about US$6.75 trillion in the financial year that ends September 30.
Democrats had expressed anger over the bill, which will cut spending by about US$7 billion and which they said does nothing to stop Trump’s campaign to halt congressionally mandated spending and slash tens of thousands of jobs.
The moves come as Trump is locked in a trade war with some of the United States' closest allies that has sparked a major sell-off in stocks and raised recession worries.