WASHINGTON – Ten Senate Democrats joined Republicans to clear the way for passage of a continuing resolution that will maintain most government spending at current levels through September and avert a government shutdown.
Both Colorado senators voted against the bill, echoing Democratic concerns that the bill gives President Donald Trump too much power and excluded Democrats from the process.
Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District Rep. Jeff Hurd joined House Republicans on Tuesday in passing the CR. Speaker Mike Johnson then adjourned the House for recess until March 24, sending the bill to the Senate and effectively forcing the upper chamber to pass the CR by 12:01 a.m. Saturday or force a government shutdown.
The move put Senate Democrats in a bit of a pickle.
Many Senate Democrats spent the next few days insisting they wouldn’t give Republicans the votes they needed to reach a 60-vote threshold to get the CR beyond a procedural vote, blaming Republicans for excluding them in earlier negotiations.
But in threatening to oppose Trump and block the bill, they risked being blamed for the shutdown. If they folded, they risked making the party look weak and disjointed.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced on Thursday he would vote yes on the procedural vote, effectively giving Democrats permission to help move it to a final vote. His reasoning: A shutdown would be worse and give Trump more power than allowing the CR to pass.
By that time, many Senate Democrats, including Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet, had already declared they would oppose the bill.
In the end, 10 Senate Democrats joined Republicans – all except Rand Paul, R-Ky. – in voting to end debate on the bill and move it to a final vote. Almost all of the Democratic senators then opposed the bill in the final vote.
The bill cuts non-defense spending by $13 billion and increases defense spending by $7 billion. It deals only with discretionary spending and does not impact mandatory spending programs – which make up about two-thirds of the total budget – like Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. Unlike the full 12-bill appropriations package, the CR does not include congressionally directed spending for projects in members’ districts – known as “earmarks.”
Republicans insisted it was a “clean” CR with minor changes to last year’s spending levels, but Democrats worried it was giving Trump and his adviser Elon Musk too much power to steer the budget – a power the Constitution gives to Congress – and further cut the federal workforce.
Schumer’s decision to help advance the bill angered many on the left – prompting serious questions about his ability to lead and even spawning discussion of potential primary challengers for his 2028 race.
Hickenlooper said Friday before the vote that he still trusts Schumer to lead the party. He acknowledged it was a no-win situation, saying the choices were “two horrible things, you can’t even imagine either one.” He also called the CR a new budget bill and said that everyone should be asking why it didn’t come through the “normal process” of appropriations.
Having to decide between risking a shutdown and allowing the CR to pass, he said he thought it was worse to allow the CR to pass.
It didn’t matter, a shutdown or a CR would effectively hand power to “a White House already grabbing it,” Hickenlooper said.
“I felt that it was, in the end – long term – more important not to have a precedent of giving (Trump) more (power), but you're giving him power even if you close down,” he said.
Bennet was less outspoken about the bill. In a statement Thursday afternoon, he said the bill “does not serve Coloradans well” and slammed Republicans because, despite knowing they would likely need several Democrats’ votes in the Senate, “they refused to work with Democrats on a bipartisan deal to put American families first.”
He declined to answer questions about Schumer’s leadership or party unity and instead said, “I think what’s important now is to look forward and to continue to make the case to the American people that we have a very different approach than Donald Trump is acting on.”
Hurd backed the bill in the House, saying the most important thing was to keep the government open. He noted the $7 billion decrease in spending, which “in the overall scheme of things is small, but certainly it’s a step in the right direction.” He also said he liked that the bill increased funding for a women and children’s health program and included pay raises for some members of the military.
While some people worry the bill could make way for more drastic cuts to federal spending and the federal workforce – including those that have roiled Southwest Colorado – Hurd said he will be “a voice for making sure that any of those efficiencies are done in the right spot.”
“I know the president and this team are looking to see ways that we can more effectively spend taxpayer dollars, and that's something that I support completely,” he said. “We have to see exactly what this process looks like and how it unfolds and then evaluate at that point.”
Kathryn Squyres is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a student at American University in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at ksquyres@durangoherald.com.
