The Senate of the United States approved on Friday (14.mar.2025) a project of provisional spending, avoiding a partial government stoppage after the Democrats retreated in an impasse motivated by the campaign of President Donald Trump (Republican Party) to cut the federal workforce.
After days of heated debates, Senate’s main Democrat, Chuck Schumer, broke the impasse on Thursday (13.mar) at night, saying that he would vote to allow the advance of the bill.
Schumer said he didn’t like the project, but believed that triggering a stoppage would be a worse result, as Trump and his advisor Elon Musk were moving quickly to cut spending.
The Senate voted 54-46 to approve the bill and send it to Trump to sanction after rejecting 4 amendments.
The Representatives House, controlled by Republicans, approved the measure at the beginning of the week, keeping stable expenses at about $ 6.75 trillion in the fiscal year that ends on September 30.
Democrats have expressed indignation with the bill, which will cut spending by about $ 7 billion and which, according to them, will do nothing to prevent Trump’s campaign from suspending mandatory congressional expenses and reduce tens of thousands of jobs.
These measures come at a time when Trump is involved in a trade war with some of the allies closest to the US, which has caused a great settlement of actions this week and raised concerns about a recession.
Democrats against Schumer
Schumer’s maneuver caused a commotion in the Democratic Party and exposed its members’ divisions on how to face Trump while in minority.
“When the minority leader in the Senate cheats on you, the only option is to resume the party and the country with grassroots activists in blue and red districts, to defend the constitution and our democracy.”said Democrat Ro Khanna in a publication on social networks.
The Senate Democrats abstained from attacking Schumer, concentrating their hard words on Trump and Musk.
In speech to journalists on Friday (14.mar), the leader of the minority in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, refused to answer reporters’ questions about whether he supported Schumer’s leadership, exposing failures in the strategy of party leaders.
Schumer’s decision particularly shook the House Democrats, who were gathered at an address in a suburb of Washington, DC. Jeffries went back to Washington to give an interview to makeshift journalists about the spending bill.
The chamber’s president of the House Democrat, Pete Aguilar, told reporters that Schumer’s action took him by surprise. More than 60 members signed a letter to Schumer on Friday (14.mar), asking him to reject the measure.
Legislators, including former Mayor Nancy Peloi and New York representative Alexandria Occortez, made public criticism to Schumer, even without directly naming him. Ocasio-Cortez wrote in the X (former Twitter) that an affirmative vote was “unthinkable”.
“Today, the biggest division among Democrats is among those who want to remain and fight and those who want to pretend to be dead.”said Congress Progressive President Greg Casar, in a statement after Schumer and 9 other Democratic senators voted for the bill to advance.
Schumer said to Reuters who did not bother with the criticism or the refusal of Jeffries to say that he trusted him.
“We have been friends for a long time. There will always be disagreements on issues ”Schumer said in a brief interview. “When I took my position, I knew some would disagree, but I felt that closing the government would have been a disaster.”
Blocking the bill would require the support of at least 41 Schumer democrats, who have long opposed government stoppages because they cause unnecessary chaos for families.
Republicans have a majority of 53-47 in the Senate.
The bill will reduce spending by about $ 7 billion from last year’s levels. US military will receive about $ 6 billion more, while defense -related programs summer a reduction of $ 13 billion.
Debt and taxes
Congress Republicans will now turn attention to a plan to extend and expand Trump tax cuts in 2017 – the largest legislative achievement in the 1st term – increasing financing for border safety and reducing spending in other areas, which democrats warn that it can endanger the medical health program for low income.
Republicans also need to act to increase the debt ceiling they have imposed themselves, or risk triggering a catastrophic default on nearly $ 36.6 trillion of the federal government.
This measure, which Republicans plan to approve using a maneuver to circumvent the Democratic opposition, can add $ 5 trillion to $ 11 trillion to debt, according to apartidal budget analysts.
By Richard Cowan, David Morgan and Gabriella Burter.
