Democrats can’t do much to stop Donald Trump and Elon Musk from gutting large parts of the federal bureaucracy, but they do have one bit of leverage left: shutting down the government.
Though Republicans have majorities in the House and Senate, they can’t pass a funding bill without Democrats’ help. They may not get it.
Republicans “needed Democratic votes to get the last couple of CRs through,” Sen. Andy Kim said. “They should not count on it this time if they continue down their path.”
Democrats have traditionally prioritized keeping the government open, and they’ve repeatedly bailed the Republicans out when necessary to avoid a shutdown. But with the new administration freezing federal aid, attacking the U.S. Agency for International Development and accessing troves of federal workforce data, some Democrats say it’s time to play hardball.
“Let me put it in this framework: 217 to 215,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the ranking member on the House Committee on Appropriations. “There’s leverage in the vote.”
One House Democrat, who requested anonymity to be frank about conversations between Democratic leadership and the caucus, told NOTUS that Democrats haven’t gotten over how Speaker Mike Johnson reneged on the original deal he cut with them during the last negotiations in December. (House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has made it known to the caucus that “the trust is broken” with the GOP, this member said).
“They think they can continually rely on Democrats to be the adults in the room while they trash the American people and the American economy,” the member told NOTUS, describing the chatter among Democrats. “The way they’re acting, I don’t see why we would be incentivized to help them destroy the federal government.”
The member wasn’t alone in having a long memory. “At least two deals we had last year, Republicans broke after we made them. So I think it’s a little hard to make deals with Republicans these days,” Rep. Mark Pocan, another member of the Appropriations Committee, told NOTUS.
Rep. Tom Cole, who chairs the Appropriations Committee, said he’s confident that Congress will avert a shutdown, but that he’s still worried about “stumbling into” one.
“Democrats, when they make a mistake, they’re pretty smart about ending it. They shut it down Friday and reopen on Monday. We do something like that, stupid. We’re stuck with it for a while, for 35 days,” he said. “Institutionally, [Democrats] believe in government.”
While few if any Democrats are explicitly committing to voting “no” on a continuing resolution or funding, they are looking for serious reassurances that Republicans still believe that the power of the purse belongs to Congress.
“If this president can say, ‘I refuse to spend money the way it was appropriated,’ why would any bipartisan group of senators be able to come to and keep an appropriations deal going forward?” said Sen. Chris Coons, a member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations.
Democrats are also worried that, even if they get a deal and keep the government open, Trump and Musk would ignore it and continue to do what they want. “There’s got to be the assurances that some interloper, whether it is ‘President Musk’ or President Trump, whomever,” will not simply ignore appropriations, DeLauro said.
“I think we need to use every bargaining point and lever available to stop the destruction of rights and liberties and invasion of privacy as is happening right now in real time,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal told NOTUS.
“We proudly talk about leaving our party flags at the door and walking in as appropriators. That’s far from what’s happening right now,” Rep. Norma Torres, a member of the Appropriations Committee, told NOTUS. “I think Republicans need to speak out.”
Pocan said Democrats might be open to a deal, but at a cost. “If Republicans can’t agree among themselves, we’re here, but we’re not cheap dates,” he said.
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Nuha Dolby and Tinashe Chingarande are NOTUS reporters and Allbritton Journalism Institute fellows.
Riley Rogerson and Haley Byrd Wilt, reporters at NOTUS, contributed to this story.