A government shutdown was avoided last week as the Senate approved a short-term spending bill Friday, which included a small increase in defense spending and about $13 billion in cuts to non-defense programs affecting agencies such as Social Security and grants for K-12 schools. The bill also affects the Disaster Relief Fund (DRF) which is not able to effectively operate due to fiscal constraints, detrimental to disaster response as hurricane season approaches. This also comes as S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster declared a state emergency on Sunday in response to widespread wildfires.
The bill passed with bipartisan support as 10 Democrats including Senate Minority leader, Chuck Schumer, (D-NY) helped the bill advance to a final vote. The shutdown would have occurred on March 14 because of the expiration of funding for the government. To counter this, the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act was passed through Sept. 30, 2025.
Those in the Democratic party who opposed the bill—a continuing resolution or CR, which would give the federal government the funds to continue to operate—claimed that it would give President Trump and advisor Elon Musk’s influence in defunding government programs without cause and spoke out against Schumer for not standing up against President Trump and the GOP party.
“To see Senate Democrats even consider acquiescing to Elon Musk, I think it is a huge slap in the face and I think that there’s a wide sense of betrayal if things proceed as currently planned,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said.
The frustration over leadership in the Democratic party is not only shared by members of the house, but also the Senate, who advanced the bill to the President, passing it 54-46 with the support of two Democrats and the exception of a Republican member.
“I would have liked to see when Chuck Schumer had leverage here to say, we need A, B, C and D for the Democratic Party and force the Republicans to meet him halfway,” Gov. Josh Shapiro (D-PA) said.
Schumer disagreed that he gave up leverage saying that Democrats were given a choice between two bad options, but he argued that preventing a complete shutdown would “minimize the harms to the American people.”
“As bad as passing the CR is, allowing Donald Trump to take even more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Thursday.
