Democrats are faced with the same dilemma that plagued them earlier this year: Should they cut a budget agreement with an administration that has consistently weakened Congress’s authority of the purse, or should they filibuster their way into a shutdown? The government funding deadline is approaching in September.
Democrats agonized for days back in March over whether to provide the votes required to approve a stopgap budget plan drafted by the G.O.P. In the end, the minority leader, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, and nine other members of his caucus voted to allow it to proceed, claiming that a shutdown would only give Mr. Trump more authority to control government agencies and make decisions about how much money to spend on them.
However, Democratic politicians, activists, and voters fiercely reacted to that, accusing Mr. Schumer of wasting a chance to run against Mr. Trump. At a time when Democrats are already furious over the president’s growing effort to undermine congressional spending authority, it has made them less inclined to vote for Republican financing legislation.
Despite uniform Democratic opposition, Republicans pushed through legislation this month to recoup $9 billion in congressionally approved expenditure, as requested by Mr. Trump. In the near future, the White House has indicated that it intends to deliver a second package of this type to Capitol Hill.
The top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, Senator Patty Murray of Washington, stated that it is no secret that the unprecedented, politicized rescissions bill that Republicans recently approved will make it more difficult to move forward with more of our initiatives. The fact that so many of our colleagues who have collaborated with us to pass financing laws now vote to take away the funding that we all agreed upon is really upsetting.
The director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell T. Vought, recently told reporters that the appropriations process needs to be less bipartisan. This enraged Democrats, who claimed the remark tainted the process as they collaborated with Republicans to draft spending measures.
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