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A Republican bill to avert a US government shutdown cleared a crucial procedural hurdle on Friday afternoon after Senate Democrats paved the way for its passage.
The Senate voted 62-38 in favour of advancing the measure, which will fund the federal government through to September 30. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer and a handful of other Democrats sided with Republicans in pushing the so-called continuing resolution forward.
Republicans control the Senate, but required a “supermajority” to overcome a potential filibuster. The chamber is expected to vote on the bill, which was passed in the House of Representatives earlier this week, later on Friday, and will now only require a simple majority to send it to President Donald Trump’s desk for signing.
One Republican, Rand Paul, opposed bringing the bill to a vote.
The final vote will cap a week of tense talks among Democrats, who struggled to unify behind a strategy for negotiating with Republicans. Though they control both chambers of Congress, Republicans lack a supermajority and needed help from across the aisle to bring the bill to a vote.
The Republican bill includes provisions Democrats are unhappy with. Some Democratic lawmakers expressed concerns that it hands Trump too much room to enact his agenda over the next six months. Still, Democrats did not want to be blamed for a government shutdown, which the president and Republicans made clear they would do.
Schumer had initially pushed back strongly against the stop-gap bill but reversed his stance and helped to convince others in his caucus to vote in favour of the measure.
There was a risk that Trump and close adviser Elon Musk would use a shutdown as an executive power grab, Schumer argued, noting that Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) could speed up their cost-cutting frenzy with fewer checks on their power.
Trump praised Schumer for the move: “I have great respect, by the way, for what Schumer did today,” he said in remarks at the justice department. “He went out and he said that they have to vote with the Republicans because it’s the right thing to do. I couldn’t believe what I heard, but . . . I think he’s going to get some credit for it.”
Schumer’s support for the bill paved the way for other Senate Democrats to follow suit, but he was criticised by some in the party for doing so, particularly in the House.
Ahead of the vote on Friday, Hakeem Jeffries, the top Democrat in the House, said his caucus was “strongly opposed to the partisan Republican spending bill”, saying Trump and Musk presented a “false choice” between the stop-gap and a government shutdown. But Jeffries declined to say whether he had lost confidence in Schumer.
Democrat representative Nancy Pelosi, former House Speaker, also took a swipe at Schumer before the vote. “Let’s be clear: neither is a good option for the American people. But this false choice that some are buying instead of fighting is unacceptable.”
Progressive Democrat representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on Thursday that “I hope Senate Democrats understand there is nothing clever about” their move. “Those games won’t fool anyone.”
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