Schumer to support GOP funding bill, unwilling to risk government shutdown as deadline nears

WASHINGTON — Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer relented Thursday rather than risk a government shutdown, announcing he’s ready to start the process of considering a Republican-led government funding bill that has fiercely divided Democrats under pressure to impose limits on the Trump administration.

Schumer told Democrats privately during a spirited closed-door lunch and then made public remarks ahead of voting Friday, which will be hours before the midnight deadline to keep government running. The New York senator said as bad as the GOP bill is, a shutdown would be worse, giving President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk “carte blanche” as they tear through the government.

“Trump has taken a blowtorch to our country and wielded chaos like a weapon,” Schumer said. “For Donald Trump, a shutdown would be a gift. It would be the best distraction he could ask for from his awful agenda.”

The move by Schumer brings a potential resolution to what has been a dayslong standoff. Senate Democrats have mounted a last-ditch protest over the package, which already passed the House but without slapping any limits they were demanding on Trump and billionaire Musk’s efforts to gut federal operations.

The Democrats are under intense pressure to do whatever they can to stop the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, which is taking a wrecking ball to long-established government agencies and purging thousands of federal workers from jobs.

Trump himself offered to wade in Thursday to negotiate: “If they need me, I’m there 100%.”

But the president also began casting blame on Democrats for any potential disruptions, saying during an Oval Office meeting, “If it shuts down, it’s not the Republicans’ fault.”

Democrats are pushing a stopgap 30-day funding bill as an alternative. But Schumer said Republicans rejected that offer. And while Democrats were split over strategy, they worried about the further chaos they say Trump and Musk could cause if government was shutdown.