Senate Democrats appeared poised to provide the necessary votes to allow Republicans’ government funding stopgap to pass Friday afternoon, hours ahead of the funding deadline, but the final outcome remains uncertain.
Final passage of the continuing resolution, which President Donald Trump has endorsed, would avoid a shutdown beginning at midnight and keep federal agencies running through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
The bill would reduce discretionary nondefense funding by more than $13 billion below the currently enacted level, resulting in billions of dollars in cuts and exclusions for water infrastructure, disaster mitigation and other environmental projects.
A majority of Democrats signaled that they would oppose the CR and seethed at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s decision late Thursday to vote to advance it. They have been pushing for a vote on a one-month CR instead to buy more time to finalize and pass fiscal 2025 spending bills.
