Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is threatening to reject a government funding deal if Republicans pass President Trump’s $9.4 billion rescission package — a nasty little obstruction plan that would likely trigger a government shutdown at the end of September.
All to slow down President Donald Trump’s agenda, which American voters overwhelmingly chose in the last election.
The Senate is expected to vote next week on the White House request to pull back $1.1 billion in public broadcasting funding and $8.3 billion in foreign aid. Republicans face a July 18 deadline to pass the rescissions package, which requires only a simple majority vote in the upper chamber.
Schumer warned on Tuesday that the Senate GOP’s plan to cut spending moves forward, it would have “grave implications” for Congress in the forthcoming government funding fight in September.
“Republicans’ passage of this purely partisan proposal would be an affront to the bipartisan appropriations process,” Schumer wrote in a letter to fellow Senate Democrats.
“That’s why a number of Senate Republicans know it is absurd for them to expect Democrats to act as business as usual and engage in a bipartisan appropriations process to fund the government, while they concurrently plot to pass a purely partisan rescissions bill to defund those same programs negotiated on a bipartisan basis behind the scenes,” he continued.
In other words: Don’t cut spending, or we’ll stop funding the entire Trump administration.
When pressed Wednesday about his plan to force a government shutdown, Schumer said it was the fault of Republicans.
“Ask the Republicans why they are heading on this path,” Schumer said. “We are doing everything we can to keep the bipartisan appropriations process going. And they’re undermining it with rescissions, with pocket rescissions, with impoundment and every other way.”
Schumer’s decision earlier this year to avert a government shutdown by working with the Trump administration to pass a stopgap spending bill in March infuriated the far-Left Democratic base so badly, it led Schumer to postpone a scheduled book tour as elected Democrats across the country criticized his leadership.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune criticized Schumer’s shutdown threat during floor remarks Wednesday.
“I was disappointed to see the Democrat leader … implicitly threaten to shut down the government,” Thune said. “But I’m hopeful that that is not the position of the Democrat Party, the Democrat conference here in the Senate, and that we can work together in the coming weeks to pass bipartisan appropriations bills.”
“Funding the government is our chief priority before October, but that won’t stop us from considering additional measures,” Thune added, referencing the spending cut package.
The rescission package, proposed under the Impoundment Control Act, allows the White House to request that Congress roll back congressionally appropriated funding. Such proposed cuts must be approved by both chambers within 45 days or the president must spend the money as originally directed by lawmakers.
The package narrowly passed the House by a 214-212 margin in June, with four GOP lawmakers joining Democrats in opposition. The spending cuts were largely from proposals from Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, which was previously headed by tech billionaire Elon Musk.
The $9.4 billion cut would represent the first DOGE cuts codified by Congress out of roughly $175 billion in reductions identified by DOGE.
Several establishment Senate Republicans have expressed concerns about the proposed spending cuts. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins of Maine said during a hearing last month that she was worried the proposed cuts would be “extraordinarily ill-advised and shortsighted.”
However, some Republicans said failure to pass the package is not an option. Louisiana Senator John Kennedy told reporters Tuesday that if Senate Republicans don’t pass the rescissions package, “then they should hide their head in the bag.”
“And I think the White House will provide the bag,” Kennedy added.
Schumer warned that cutting spending would create “consequences that will be felt far beyond the halls of power.”
“This is beyond a bait-and-switch – it is a bait-and-poison-to-kill,” Schumer said. “Senate Republicans must reject this partisan path and instead work with Democrats on a bipartisan appropriations process.”