Hawaii’s senators split as Senate passes stopgap bill

WASHINGTON >> The U.S. Senate today passed a stopgap spending bill, averting a partial government shutdown, after Democrats backed down in a standoff driven by anger over President Donald Trump’s campaign to slash the federal workforce.

After days of heated debate, top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer broke the logjam on Thursday night, saying that he would vote to allow the bill the advance. Schumer said he did not like the bill but believed that triggering a shutdown would be a worse outcome as Trump and his adviser Elon Musk were moving swiftly to slash spending.

The Senate voted 54-46 to pass the bill and send it to Trump for signing into law, after fending off four amendments.

Hawaii’s two Democrat senators split their votes on the continuing resolution to avoid a shutdown, with Sen. Brian Schatz voting for the measure and Sen. Mazie Hirono opposing.

Schatz said in a statement saying, “My job is to protect people in Hawaii. Today’s vote on the continuing resolution was a difficult and close call, but ultimately, I made the determination that a flawed bill was better than no bill at all. A shutdown would enable Donald Trump and Elon Musk to unilaterally determine that the vast majority of federal workers are not essential. And given the number of federal workers in Hawaii, mass furloughs would be deeply painful for people across the state.”

In a separate statement, Hirono said, “By forcing a choice between a deeply partisan CR that removes critical guardrails and a shutdown that would enable Trump and Musk to sow yet more chaos, Republicans have made clear that they are more concerned with pleasing Donald Trump than protecting the American people. It didn’t have to be this way—Republicans and Democrats were close to a bipartisan agreement that would have kept government open with full Appropriations bills. Republicans chose to walk away from those negotiations at the 11th hour. I cannot support this CR.”

Schatz’s statement went on to say, “I understand people’s frustration — I share it. But Trump and the Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress, presented us with a bad choice and a worse choice. Both would produce terrible outcomes, but a shutdown would be more devastating for everyone.”

“We’re in a fight for democracy itself. We can’t let disagreements about strategy and tactics divide us. We need to focus our energy on the real villain here: Donald Trump,” he said.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives earlier this week passed the measure, which largely leaves spending steady at about $6.75 trillion in the fiscal year that ends September 30.

Democrats had expressed anger over the bill, which will cut spending by about $7 billion and which they said does nothing to stop Trump’s campaign to halt congressionally mandated spending and slash tens of thousands of jobs.

The moves come as Trump is locked in a trade war with some of the U.S.’s closest allies that has sparked a major sell-off in stocks and raised recession worries.

DEMOCRATS TURN ON SCHUMER

Schumer’s maneuver sent shockwaves through the Democratic Party and laid bare members’ divisions over how to stand up to Trump while they remain in the governing minority.

“When the Senate Minority Leader sells you out, the only option is to take back the party and country with grassroots activists in blue and red districts to stand up for the Constitution and our democracy,” Democratic Representative Ro Khanna said in a social media post.

Senate Democrats refrained from attacking Schumer, focusing their harsh words on Trump and Musk.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries refused to answer reporters’ questions about whether he backed Schumer’s leadership at a Friday press conference, exposing stunning cracks in the party leaders’ strategy.

Schumer’s decision particularly rattled House Democrats, who were huddled at a retreat in a suburb of Washington, D.C. Jeffries rushed back to Washington to hold an impromptu press conference on the spending bill.

House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar told reporters that Schumer’s move had caught him by surprise. More than 60 members signed a letter to Schumer today urging him to reject the measure.

Lawmakers including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and New Yorker Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez heaped public criticism on Schumer today, even without naming him directly. Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X on Thursday that an affirmative vote was “unthinkable.”

“Today the biggest split among Democrats is between those who want to stand and fight and those who want to play dead,” said Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar in a statement after Schumer and nine other Democratic senators voted to advance the bill.

Schumer told Reuters he was unfazed by the criticism, or Jeffries’ refusal to say he had confidence in him.

“We’ve been friends for a long time. There are always going to be disagreements on issues,” Schumer said in a brief interview. “When I took my position. I knew some would disagree, but I felt shutting down the government would have been a disaster.”

Blocking the bill would have required the support of at least 41 of Schumer’s Democrats, who have long opposed government shutdowns as causing needless chaos to American families.

Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate.

The partisan bill will reduce spending by about $7 billion from last year’s levels. The U.S. military will get about $6 billion more, while non-defense programs will see a $13 billion reduction.

UP NEXT: DEBT AND TAXES

Congressional Republicans will now turn their attention to a plan to extend and expand Trump’s 2017 tax cuts — his major first-term legislative achievement — boost funding for border security and cut spending in other areas, which Democrats warn could imperil the Medicaid healthcare program for low-income Americans.

Republicans also need to act by sometime this spring or summer to raise their self-imposed debt ceiling or risk triggering a catastrophic default on the federal government’s nearly $36.6 trillion in debt.

That measure, which Republicans plan to pass using a maneuver to bypass Democratic opposition, could add $5 trillion to $11 trillion to the debt, according to nonpartisan budget analysts.

Star-Advertiser staff contributed to this report. Additional reporting by David Morgan and Gabriella Borter.