Schumer warns of a shutdown if Republicans don’t accept Democrats’
health care demands
[September 12, 2025]
By MARY CLARE JALONICK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer weathered
backlash from Democrats earlier this year when he voted with Republicans
to keep the government open. But he’s now willing to risk a shutdown at
the end of the month if Republicans don’t accede to Democratic demands.
Schumer says he and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries are united
in opposing any legislation that doesn’t include key health care
provisions and a commitment not to roll them back. He argues that the
country is in a different place than it was in March, when he vigorously
argued against a shutdown, and he says he believes Republicans and
President Donald Trump will be held responsible if they don’t negotiate
a bipartisan deal.
“Things have changed” since the March vote, Schumer said in an interview
with The Associated Press on Thursday. He said Republicans have since
passed Trump’s massive tax breaks and spending cuts legislation, which
trimmed Medicaid and other government programs, and Democrats are now
unified — unlike in March, when he voted with Republicans and Jeffries
voted against legislation to fund the government.
A shutdown, Schumer said, wouldn’t necessarily worsen an environment in
which Trump is already challenging the authority of Congress. “It will
get worse with or without it, because Trump is lawless,” Schumer said.
Schumer’s threat comes as Republicans are considering a short-term
stopgap spending measure to avoid a Sept. 30 shutdown and as Democrats
face what most see as two tough choices if the parties can’t negotiate a
deal — vote with Republicans to keep the government open or let it close
indefinitely with no clear exit plan.
It also comes amid worsening partisan tensions in the Senate, where
negotiations between the two parties over the confirmation process broke
down for a second time Thursday and Republicans are changing Senate
rules to get around Democratic objections. Democrats are also fuming
over the Trump administration’s decision to unilaterally claw back $4.9
billion in congressionally approved foreign aid just as negotiations
over the spending deadline were getting underway in late August.
Republicans have said that Democrats clearly will be to blame if they
don’t vote to keep the government open, and Senate Majority Leader John
Thune, R-S.D., has repeatedly said that Schumer needs to come to them
with a specific proposal on health care, including an extension of
expanded government tax credits for many Americans who get their health
insurance through the Affordable Care Act. Some Republicans are open to
extending those credits before they expire at the end of the year.
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Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of N.Y., listens during a news
conference after a policy luncheon at the Capitol, Tuesday, Sept. 9,
2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)
Less realistic is Democrats’ demand that Republicans roll back Medicaid
cuts enacted in their tax breaks and spending cuts legislation this
summer, what Trump called his “big, beautiful bill.”
Schumer said Democrats also want Republicans to commit that the White
House won’t take back money they have negotiated and Congress has
approved after Republicans pushed through a $9 billion cut requested by
the White House in July and Trump blocked the additional foreign aid
money in August. “How do you pass an appropriations bill and let them
undo it down the road?” Schumer said.
Schumer’s move to support the spending legislation in March put him in
the rare position of bucking his party’s base. He said then that of two
bad options, a partial government shutdown was worse because it would
give Trump even more control to shut down agencies and there would be
“no off-ramp” to get out of it. “I think people realize it’s a tough
choice,” he said.
He faced massive backlash from within the party after the vote, with
some activists calling on him to resign. Jeffries temporarily distanced
himself from his New York colleague, saying in a statement immediately
after Schumer’s vote that House Democrats “will not be complicit.” The
majority of Senate Democrats also voted against the plan.
This time, though, Schumer is in lockstep with Jeffries and in messaging
within his caucus. In Democrats’ closed-door lunch Wednesday, he shared
polling that he said suggested most Americans would blame Trump, not
Democrats, for a shutdown.
“I did what I thought was right” in March, Schumer said. “It’s a
different situation now than then.”
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