Schumer says there's a 'really good chance' to avoid government shutdown

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Sunday told reporters that there’s a “really good chance” that the government will not shut down at the end of the month.

“We really now have some good news: There’s a really good chance we can avoid the government shutdown with all the pain it would cause for New York and America this week,” Schumer said.

Congress has just over a week to pass a short-term funding bill, also known as a continuing resolution or CR, to avert a government shutdown at 12:01 a.m. on Oct. 1.

Last week, House Republicans voted down their own plan to avert a shutdown, dealing an embarrassing blow to Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and imperiling efforts to fund the government for six months.

Discussions about keeping the government open are particularly tense now, with less than 50 days left before the presidential election.

On Sunday, Schumer said he is “coming closer” to an agreement with Johnson.

“I am ready to sit down, and I have been sitting down for the last four days with Speaker Johnson, his staff and my staff, and we’re coming closer to an agreement,” Schumer told reporters.

“We can get this done, but we can’t have any delays,” he said, adding: “We can’t have any people on either side of the aisle, Democrats or Republicans, standing up and saying, unless I get my way, I’m going to shut down the government. We can’t have that. There’s too great a consequence for the American people.”

Johnson is expected to unveil and vote on a short-term bill to fund the government this week.

Schumer’s comments come after he called Johnson’s previous strategy that involved passing both a CR and a bill called the SAVE Act “unworkable” and encouraged him to abandon it in a floor speech last Tuesday.

The speaker has struggled to bring his caucus into consensus on a spending plan over the last few weeks, especially after former President Donald Trump urged Republicans to shut down the government if they can’t tie a bill to the SAVE Act, a bill related to voting and elections.

“If Republicans in the House, and Senate, don’t get absolute assurances on Election Security, THEY SHOULD, IN NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM, GO FORWARD WITH A CONTINUING RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET. ... CLOSE IT DOWN!!!” Trump wrote on his social media site, Truth Social, earlier this month.

Last week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., lambasted the idea of shutting down the government, especially so close to the election.

“It would be politically beyond stupid for us to do that right before the election because certainly we get the blame,” McConnell said, adding: “We’ve been here before. I’m for whatever avoids a government shutdown, and that’ll ultimately end up obviously being a discussion between the Democratic leader and the speaker of the House as to how to process avoiding a government shutdown.”