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The Senate advanced its solution to avert a government shutdown on Saturday, capping off several months of hand-wringing that, if given the chance, Senate Democrats would use a shutdown to score political points in November.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his caucus relented, and stayed true to the bargain they struck with Republicans to keep the government funded well past Election Night and into early December.
The about-face, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told Fox News Digital, appeared to be a political calculation on Schumer and Democrats’ part.
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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, during a news conference following the weekly Senate Democrat policy luncheon at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, US, on Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“I think they didn’t want to spend the next, well … three months defending attacks from Republicans about wanting to shut the government down,” Thune said.
“I mean, I think there was a narrative starting to build out there based on what’s happened the last 12 months, which I think, they probably — you know, these guys are political animals,” Thune continued. “I’m assuming those guys are polling all the time.”
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And Schumer claimed victory over the process, arguing that Democrats “for months” wanted to keep the government open, and had scored key concessions from the Trump administration on an ensuing rule change to federal grants in the bipartisan continuing resolution (CR).
“We want to reach across the aisle and hammer out a budget that delivers for the American people,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “Today, [this] CR gives us the breathing room necessary to work out a budget that helps make life more affordable to working families and reigns in Trump’s rampant chaos, his rampant corruption.”
However, Republicans have been messaging for months that congressional Democrats wouldn’t bat an eye at shutting the government down again. In the Senate, efforts have been made to inflict pain on lawmakers should another shutdown happen, like agreeing to forego their paychecks in the event of a closure.
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Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) speaks at a press conference with other members of Senate Republican leadership following a policy luncheon in Washington, D.C. on October 28, 2025. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
That follows two government shutdowns that etched their way into the record books at 43 and 76 days, respectively, but the political winds didn’t appear to be in Democrats’ favor this go-round, the top Senate Republican said.
“And I think they see an issue set that works for them going into the fall election, and I think they view a government shutdown or the prospect of not funding the government as creating uncertainty that perhaps didn’t help their chances,” Thune said.
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While the shutdown fight is over in the Senate, for now, it will continue on in the House.
And if passed, it will give lawmakers breathing room to continue stalled negotiations to fund the government through the appropriations process. However, by then, Congress will be in the post-midterm election lame duck period. And dependent on the swing of the political pendulum, there may not be much appetite to reach a broader funding deal.
“Us having a budget done on December 11? It takes on whiffs of frozen hell, donkeys flying,” Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said. “I mean, it’s probably not gonna happen.”