Senators voted Friday to pass legislation to prevent cuts to the District of Columbia’s local budget after city officials warned the District faced a $1 billion hit under a stopgap government funding bill approved by the Senate moments earlier.

The bill, which allows D.C. to continue operating at its adopted fiscal 2025 budget, passed by voice vote.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) surprised Washington Thursday by announcing on the Senate floor that he would vote to advance a House Republican-drafted six-month government funding bill, splitting with fellow Senate Democrats who are loudly calling for the bill’s defeat.  

Schumer’s announcement provides crucial political cover to Senate Democratic centrists who are thinking about voting for the House-passed bill to keep the government from shutting down, even though they have serious concerns about the House bill.

House Democrats are livid. The progressive grassroots is aghast. Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), after taking a victory lap after the first cloture vote on the House GOP’s continuing resolution, which would fund the government for another six months, totally caved yesterday. He’s going to vote to keep the government open. Republicans needed a handful of Democratic votes to get to 60. They didn’t have it on Tuesday. They will soon, with Schumer and now Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) announcing they’d support keeping the government open.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said Wednesday that Republicans do not have enough Democratic votes in the upper chamber to advance the House-passed GOP government funding bill to President Donald Trump’s desk, complicating GOP congressional leaders’ path to averting a shutdown ahead of the March 14 funding deadline.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has signaled his party is prepared to let the government shut down.

Why it matters: Even if it's a bargaining tactic, Schumer and Democrats have put Congress closer to an outcome he's repeatedly warned against.

By Thursday evening, Schumer and Senate GOP leader John Thune (R-S.D.) could have a handshake deal to allow amendment votes and speed up the process.

Senate Democrats say privately that they will not allow the government to shut down on Saturday, despite growing pressure from activists and liberal lawmakers who want them to kill a GOP-crafted six-month stopgap spending bill.

Senate Democratic sources say Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) is giving plenty of room to centrists in his caucus to vote for the House-passed continuing resolution (CR) if doing so is the only way to avoid a government shutdown at week’s end.

Senate Democrats launched an online form on their website for public servants to report cases of the Trump administration acting out of line, particularly regarding the conduct of the Department of Government Efficiency, which is run by Elon Musk. 

“Whistleblowers are a vital part of Congressional oversight to hold the administration accountable,” says the description of the online form.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), the ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said they are launching a portal for whistleblowers to expose wrongdoing and abuses of power in the Trump administration.

Senate Democrats, led by Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) and Sen. Gary Peters (D-Michigan), have set up a whistleblower complaint portal for federal workers to submit any reports of what they see as unlawful activities in their respective agencies in response to Elon Musk and his group’s efforts to downsize the federal government.