WASHINGTON — Dem Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Sunday refused to rule out caving to President Trump’s demand for a “clean” stopgap funding bill — no poison pills attached — to avert a partial federal shutdown.
The senior New York senator and most other Democrats in the chamber had rejected a “clean” GOP-backed House bill Friday to keep the government’s lights on. Instead, they backed their own bill that would have averted a partial shutdown while achieving their demands on health care and restricting Trump’s ability to freeze funding.
But Schumer, pressed Sunday about whether he would be on board with the Republicans’ “clean” spending patch if time runs out, to avoid a shutdown, would not deny the possibility.
“Look, we hope it doesn’t come to that,” Schumer told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “The American people are on our side by almost 2 to 1.”
When host Dana Bash pressed him again for a direct answer, Schumer only said, “We are hoping that [Trump] will negotiate with us, and so far he hasn’t.”
Bash said Schumer’s non-answers to her question “sounded like a yes” to her– meaning he would not vote for a “clean” bill to avert a partial shutdown without concessions.
She gave him the chance to confirm that — but Schumer did not.
Instead, he said, “The bottom line is we must get a better bill than what they had the last time.”
Congress has a deadline of Sept. 30 at 11:59 p.m. to pass some sort of government funding measure or else face a partial shutdown.
That’s because every new fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1, Congress is required to fund the government.
The GOP-led House approved its proposed stopgap — known as a continuing resolution — Friday without most Dems’ help to keep the government’s lights on through Nov. 21.
The Senate then voted on both the GOP CR and the Democratic one to avert a partial shutdown. Both failed.
While Republicans have a majority in both chambers, they need Democratic votes in the Senate to overcome the 60-vote threshold needed to break a filibuster.
In March, Schumer faced a revolt among his progressive base for declining to block a GOP-backed continuing resolution to avert a partial shutdown at the time. The backlash included open calls for him to face a primary in 2028.
“The situation is a lot different now than it was then,” Schumer insisted Sunday. “This is a demand from the American people across the board.”
Both Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) have publicly demanded concessions from Republicans on healthcare funding.
They’ve indicated that Democrats want Republicans to help them prevent the expiration of the beefed-up Affordable Care Act subsidies, which are set to run out at the end of 2025, reverse Medicaid reforms in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — which Republicans now call the Working Families Tax Cut Act — and restore public health research funding.
Schumer and Jeffries have also sought a meeting with Trump to discuss their demands. While Trump has implored Republicans to back a “clean” continuing resolution, he’s conveyed openness to meeting with the two top Democrats, though nothing has been scheduled.
“I’d love to meet with them, but I don’t think it’s going to have any impact,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Sunday.
