Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said on Thursday that Republicans are open to giving Democrats an amendment vote on a monthlong stopgap funding patch in exchange for votes to help Republicans pass a yearlong spending bill to avert a government shutdown.
Thune told reporters that he has yet to speak directly with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on a path forward.
“If they want a vote on that in exchange for getting us the votes to pass the [CR] to Sept. 30, I think we’re open to that,” Thune said on Thursday morning. “But as you all know, the House is gone, so whatever happens is going to have to be the final action here, and really it’s up to them.”
“We haven’t heard from them yet. I think they’re still trying to figure out what their plan is, what their path forward is,” Thune said about Schumer’s team, adding that he wasn’t sure whether a shutdown is in the cards. “I don’t know. We’ll see. I hope not. It’s up to them. It’s their call. The ball is in their court.”
Senate Democrats have been agonizing for days over whether to back the GOP’s bill, which only one House Democrat voted for, or to force a shutdown as they believe the bill gives even more power to President Trump and Elon Musk over spending and cutting.
They emerged from a second lengthy conference luncheon on Wednesday rallied behind a possible month-long measure, with an eye toward an amendment vote that would give them political cover from a base that is angry over many of the initial actions of the Trump administration, including a purge of government employees.
