Today the Senate passed the House-passed Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the government through September 30, the remainder of the 2025 fiscal year, by a vote of 54-46. Two members of the Democratic caucus voted for the bill, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), who is retiring at the end of her current term, and Sen. Angus King (I-ME). The only Republican to vote against the bill was Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY).
Prior to the final vote on the CR, the Senate needed 60 votes to pass the procedural vote to set up final passage. That cloture vote was 62-38, with ten members of the Democratic caucus voting to advance the bill, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY), Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and Sen. Angus King (I-ME). 52 Republicans voted for the bill, all but Sen. Paul.
The bill, which was backed by President Trump, is expected to be signed by the President tonight, averting a shutdown which would otherwise begin at midnight.
The CR largely maintains FY 24 funding levels, though it decreases non-defense spending by $13 billion (a 1.7% cut), while increasing defense spending by $6 billion (a 0.7% increase). Republicans are pursuing additional defense funding increases in its Republican only budget reconciliation bill.
The CR does not include earmarks, and cuts funding for some accounts that had been allocated to earmarks in FY 24. House Republican Chair Tom Cole (R-OK) said, “most members would like to go back to a system, and would assume we will in ’26, where they [earmarks] would be a normal part of the process.”
On Tuesday, the House passed the CR in a 217-213 vote, with all House Republicans voting in favor except for Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), and all House Democrats voting against it except for Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME). After passing the CR, the House went on recess. The House and Senate are now both in recess, and return on Monday, March 24.
Early in the week, Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) and House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) introduced a short-term CR that would keep the government funded through April 11, which would allow Congress more time to continue negotiations to complete twelve bipartisan FY 25 funding bills. However, Republicans rejected the plan, and Democrats never fully unified around it.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Wednesday that the Republican-backed CR through September 30 did not have the votes to pass, before on Thursday deciding to support it. Schumer saw the alternative, a shutdown with no clear path to attain concessions favorable to Democrats, as the worse option.
This week’s passage of the largely Republican-backed and Trump endorsed bill has frustrated and divided Congressional Democrats. Just yesterday, House Speaker Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and House leadership issued a joint statement which said, “the far-right Republican funding bill will unleash havoc on everyday Americans, giving Donald Trump and Elon Musk even more power to continue dismantling the federal government. House Democrats will not be complicit.” Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) sided with House Speaker Jeffries and with the House and Senate Democratic appropriations leadership.
Schumer outlined his reasoning for breaking with House Democratic leadership and many of his Senate Democratic colleagues in a New York Times opinion piece and floor speech yesterday, stating “for sure, the Republican bill is a terrible option. It is not a clean CR. It is deeply partisan. It doesn’t address far too many of this country’s needs. But I believe allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option.”
Sen. Murray’s floor remarks outlined problems with the relatively slim full-year CR bill, including concern that the CR lacks the prescriptive programmatic details, funding tables, and report language included in typical appropriations bills.