Schumer Didn’t Vote for the Government Funding Deal. He’s Under Fire Anyway.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was not part of the group that negotiated a deal to reopen the government with no actual assurances on health care — and even voted against the bill.

He’s bearing the brunt of the blame anyway.

Schumer has been actively distancing himself from the legislation, which was negotiated by a handful of moderates. But for many Democrats in and outside of the Capitol, that’s not enough, and he’s bearing the brunt of the blame for allowing it to happen in the first place.

A number of House Democrats and Senate candidates are calling on Schumer to step down, citing his failure to negotiate a deal with GOP leadership that actually achieved Democrats’ one central goal: an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies.

Rep. Seth Moulton, who is challenging Sen. Ed Markey in a Massachusetts primary, wrote that if Schumer “were an effective leader, he would have united his caucus to vote ‘No’ tonight and hold the line on healthcare.” Michigan state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who’s previously said she would not support Schumer for leader, wrote amid news of the deal: “We need new leaders in the Senate.”

Other congressional Democrats also took aim at the minority leader, like Rep. Ro Khanna, who wrote that “Senator Schumer is no longer effective and should be replaced.”

Rep. Mark Pocan wrote in a clear swipe at Schumer: “Don’t endorse or say who you voted for in NYC despite there being a Dem candidate. Get Dem Senators to negotiate a terrible ‘deal’ that does nothing real about healthcare. Screw over a national political party. Profile of scourge? Next.”

Notably, when asked whether Schumer should keep his leadership job and if he was effective, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries responded: “Yes and yes,” in stark contrast to what he said back in March, when Jeffries refused to back a Schumer led effort to pass a continuing resolution.

“Democrats have been waging this fight, and we’ll continue to wage this fight no matter what comes over to us from the United States Senate to the House of Representatives,” Jeffries said at a press conference Monday morning.

The deal agreed to by rank-and-file moderate Democrats supports an offer GOP leadership made weeks ago: to permit Democrats a floor vote on health care sometime after the government opens. Schumer had cast that idea as a nonstarter, and it’s widely believed that Republicans will swiftly vote down any legislation that would actually deliver on Democrats’ priorities.

A number of outside groups have echoed the calls for Schumer to step down, however. The progressive organization Sunrise Movement, which has previously called on Schumer to step down, is among them.

“We see through that no vote and he has a responsibility as Democratic leadership of what the caucus does,” spokesperson Denae Ávila-Dickson told NOTUS.

Ávila-Dickson added: “We also know that Chuck Schumer is afraid of a primary and he believes that that no vote might save him from a primary. But we don’t believe that to be the case.”

Indivisible, another large progressive group, echoed that sentiment. Co-executive Director Leah Greenberg told NOTUS “as an individual senator, your vote is important,” while “as the minority leader, outcomes are important.”

“What we are ultimately looking at is, were you able to successfully keep your caucus together to run a play?” Greenberg said. “And the reality is that we don’t have to get into what’s in his heart or what his intentions were to say that this is not the outcome that we wanted to see.”

To be sure, not a single current Democratic senator is calling on Schumer to step aside, and their voices matter most of all. Schumer, who is currently 74 years old, is also not up for reelection until 2028, and has not said whether or not he’d run at all.

“Listen, Leader Schumer and Senate Democrats over the last seven weeks have waged a valiant fight on behalf of the American people, and I’m not going to explain what a handful of Senate Democrats have decided to do. That’s their explanation to offer to the American people,” Jeffries said.

And another House Democrat, Rep. Glenn Ivey, who’d called for a new Senate Democratic leader earlier this year, was more generous toward Schumer in an interview on Monday.

When NOTUS asked Ivey whether he still wants to see Schumer ousted, he replied: “Well, I think he voted against the deal. So, I want to be careful about blaming him for what some of his colleagues did, and I am anxious to hear from Leader Jeffries about what conversations they did or did not have in advance of all of this. So I think it’s a little premature for me to make a call for that.”

Still, the backlash is a blow to the Democratic leader who spent weeks earlier this year under fire for a similar vote. During the March round of government funding, Schumer supported a continuing resolution to avert a shutdown altogether. And progressives were mad then, just as they are now.

And Schumer won’t be the only Democrat taking blame for the vote. Eight members of the Senate Democratic Caucus voted in favor of the legislation, five of whom had previously been withholding their votes. Of that group, none are up for reelection in 2026, and a few are opting for retirement.

A handful of moderate House Democrats are also expected to support the measure, a person familiar with talks told NOTUS. The measure will likely pass the House when the lower chamber takes up the legislation later this week.

“If Democrats cave on this issue, what it will say to Donald Trump is that he has a green light to go forward on authoritarianism,” Sen. Bernie Sanders said Sunday night. “And I think that would be a tragedy for this country.”

Last week, Senate Democrats contended they were “united” and ready to hold out for more in a deal, particularly in the wake of elections in New York, New Jersey and Virginia that saw major wins for the party. But that unity evidently only went so far.

“What Tuesday’s election was about is people standing up to Trumpism,” Sanders added. “And I think it would be a policy and political disaster for the Democrats to cave.”