JUST IN: Gоʋeɾnment Shυtdоwn Lιkely As Senate Dems Pоsιtιоn Tо Blоck Fυndιng Bιll

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced Wednesday that Democrats will not support the House-passed bill to fund the federal government through September, all but ensuring a partial government shutdown when the deadline expires at midnight this Friday.

The House passed the Trump-backed funding bill, a short-term stopgap known as a “continuing resolution,” largely along party lines on Tuesday. Every Republican with the exception of Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) voted in favor of the bill, while Rep. Jared Golden (D-ME) was the lone Democrat crossover vote.

While Republicans hold a three-seat majority in the Senate, they would need support from Democrats in order to cross the 60-vote cloture threshold. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) has signaled his opposition to the bill, meaning that eight Senate Democrats would need to vote “yes” in order to avoid a partial government shutdown.

“For years, House Democrats have railed against government shutdowns, but they suddenly changed their tune when President Trump returned to office. Their falsehoods and misinformation campaigns are a desperate attempt to distract from their own failures,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said after the successful House vote.

The House speaker concluded his post by noting that Democrats will own a government shutdown if Senate members opt not to come through. “Now it’s decision time for Senate Democrats: cast a vote to keep the government open or be responsible for shutting it down,” Johnson said.

On Wednesday, Schumer indicated that a stoppage is all but certain by announcing that Senate Democrats will vote in favor of a government shutdown.

“Funding the government should be a bipartisan effort but Republicans chose a partisan path, drafting their [continuing resolution] without any input — any input — from congressional Democrats,” Schumer said on the Senate floor Wednesday.

“Because of that, Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on the House CR. Our caucus is unified on a clean April 11 CR that will keep the government open and give Congress time to negotiate bipartisan legislation that can pass,” the Senate minority leader continued in a roundabout way of saying that Democrats will vote to shut down the government.

Speaker Johnson left the ball firmly in Schumer’s court by announcing that the House would be entering recess until March 24, leaving Senate Democrats with the option to accept the House bill or be left responsible for a shutdown.

According to a report from NBC News, Schumer met with a number of leading Senate Democrats for lunch on Wednesday in order to discuss their next move. The caucus reportedly went into the meeting “torn” over whether to vote in favor of the stop-gap measure or shut down the government, with some members expressing concern over the latter option.

Despite the fact responsibility for a shutdown would rest solely with Democrats, a number of Senators are attempting to blame Republicans anyway. “There are not the votes right now to pass it,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) told reporters after the meeting. “Democrats had nothing to do with this bill. And we want an opportunity to get an amendment vote or two. And so that’s what we are insisting on.”

Others expressed concern over the effects of and blowback that would come from a Democrat-initiated government shutdown. “Quite frankly, both outcomes are bad,” Senator Raphael Warnock (D-GA) told reporters. “Elections have consequences, but this is an extreme bill. If it passes, it will hurt a lot of ordinary people on the ground. If the government shuts down, that will hurt a lot of ordinary people on the ground, and so that is the dilemma in which we found ourselves.”