Democrat lawmakers differ in how to approach their work after returning to Washington next month following the summer recess.
With a Sept. 30 deadline, Congress will have just four weeks to avert a government shutdown.
Traditionally, government funding negotiations have involved bipartisan agreement, though recent years have seen increasing partisanship from both sides.
Republicans will need Democrat votes in the Senate for any legislation to clear the 60-vote procedural hurdle to move forward.
Democrats, though, are determined to win a majority in at least one chamber of Congress in the 2026 midterms.
Democrat leaders seem to believe they’ll be best served by presenting themselves as “a moderating force” to people concerned with President Donald Trump and Republicans who passed the president’s tax cut and spending megabill, according to Bloomberg.
Also, at least one Democrat said he’s not interested in playing hardball with Republicans.
“I’m voting to keep the government open,” Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., said, Politico reported.
However, progressives have no interest in working with the GOP to find agreement. They are angry that Trump and Republicans moved to rescind $9 billion in previously approved congressional funding.
“I’m not willing to be a helpmate on another one of Donald Trump’s scams,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said last week. “Do we really look that gullible?”
Warren joins Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., as prominent Democrats who want their leaders to stand tough against Trump and the GOP.
“It is time for Democrats to have a backbone. It is time for us to fight. It is time for us to draw lines!” Booker said on the Senate floor last week.
Murphy, who has been mentioned as a potential 2028 presidential contender, also tried to incite Democrats.
“Republicans have told us that they’re going to ask us to negotiate a budget, and then they are going to stab us in the back the minute we walk out of the room,” Murphy said, Bloomberg reported.
Murphy and other Democrats aiming for success in the midterms have preferred to keep the focus on the disgraced financier and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein files, Trump’s tariffs, and new demands for Medicaid recipients.
Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., see the spending showdown as an opportunity to score some legislative victories, Bloomberg reported.
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