Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is laying the groundwork for a bitter messaging battle with Republicans later this year, saying Wednesday that Republicans will be to blame for a government shutdown if Congress misses an Oct. 1 funding deadline.
Schumer emphasized that Democrats are prepared to wield what leverage they have to withhold vital bipartisan support needed for the annual budget if Republicans move forward with a $9.4 billion rescissions package to regain federal money already appropriated.
“Ask the Republicans why they are heading on this path. We are doing everything we can to keep the bipartisan appropriations process going,” Schumer told reporters. “They’re undermining it with rescissions, with pocket rescissions, with impoundment, and every other way.”
Minutes earlier, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) told reporters they plan to amend the rescissions legislation, which centers on cuts to foreign aid and public broadcasting, before passing it sometime next week.
Republicans accused Schumer’s rhetoric of being draped in hypocrisy for a de facto threat to shut the government down and not moving individual bills during the appropriations process when he was the majority leader.
“Notoriously didn’t put a single apropos bill on the floor last year, yet taking credit for keeping the bipartisan negotiations going?” a senior GOP Senate aide told the Washington Examiner. “That’s mental gymnastics.”
Schumer is facing the latest round of pressure from Democratic voters to invoke what leverage is at his disposal, which, as a minority, is withholding the votes to usurp the chamber’s 60-vote filibuster. Just last week, congressional Republicans used their slim House and Senate majorities to muscle through President Donald Trump’s domestic policy agenda known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act during a filibuster-skirting process that Democrats could not block.
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Earlier this year, Schumer faced fierce revolt and calls for his resignation as leader after he and several other Democrats sided with Republicans on a funding bill to avert a shutdown.
But this time, Schumer is staking out an early position that he may not be so willing to give GOP senators the votes they’ll need when Congress is careening toward an Oct. 1 funding cliff.