The Senate on Friday rejected a stopgap funding measure, leaving the government in a partial shutdown for another day. It marked the third time this week — and the fourth in two weeks — that Democrats in the upper chamber blocked passage of a continuing resolution.
The vote was 54-44, with 60 votes needed to break cloture and end the shutdown. Democrat Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, along with independent Sen. Angus King of Maine, joined most Republicans in supporting the bill. As in previous votes, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was the only Republican to vote against advancing the measure.
“Democrats just voted to continue to keep the government shutdown to give free healthcare to illegal aliens,” the White House wrote on X. “SHAME ON THEM.”
With no deal in sight, the shutdown will stretch into the weekend as both chambers brace for another round of partisan brinkmanship. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., reportedly said before the vote he would send senators home for the weekend if Democrats again blocked the GOP plan.
Thune said his party won’t bow to Democrats’ demands to tie a spending extension to health care concessions, meaning the earliest another vote could come is Monday.
“Today, we saw the Republicans run the same play, and they got the same result,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said during a news conference following the vote. “The question is, will they change course? The votes aren’t there. It’s clear from today’s vote, and two days ago’s vote, and the two other votes before it.
“The bottom line is we’ve had four votes, and they haven’t gotten the votes on any of them. We’ve asked Republican leaders for months to sit down and talk with us. They have refused and barreled us into a shutdown. They thought they could bludgeon us and threaten us and scare us. It ain’t working because my caucus and Democrats are adamant that we must protect the health care of the American people.”
The vote followed a Democrat-backed plan that also fell short of the 60 votes needed. That proposal would have repealed provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act barring certain illegal immigrants from receiving Medicaid payments.
The push drew sharp GOP opposition, with Republicans denouncing it as a backdoor attempt to restore Medicaid benefits for migrants.
“We’re still in a Schumer Shutdown,” Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., told Newsmax after the vote. ” And I know that’s cliche, but a Schumer Shutdown is what we’re dealing with right now. Members of his own team over there are saying we’re not exactly sure why we’re doing this.
“I know we’ve got to be in a shirts and skins game for a while, but they’re getting tired of it. And what we’re doing is, is trying to provide them with ample opportunities to see a path forward.
“That means taking care of a lot of the things that they cared about. John Thune has done a marvelous job of saying, we’re going to get back to regular order. We’re going to do appropriations bills where everybody has a say in them. We’re going to do the National Defense Authorization Act, where everybody has a say in it. We’re making progress.”
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