Unless Congress can pass a bill to fund the federal government (which Donald Trump then signs) before midnight on Friday, the government will be forced to shut down at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time on Saturday. It’s the first looming shutdown of the second Trump administration, and there are growing signs that while some Senate Democrats will vote to block the bill, there probably won’t be enough of them to do so successfully. Below are the latest developments along with analysis and commentary as the hours count down.

A few arguments in favor of Schumer and others not trying to block the CR:

Schumer is right. Dems are understandably spoiling for a fight but this was not it. The idea that there was leverage in a shutdown was magical thinking - it’d be a gift to DOGE, more people would be hurt and it would’ve ended with a worse deal.

Fight - but pick smart fights.

Matt Yglesias concurs:

This is correct, all my friends in DC are hopping mad about the way we are getting screwed on this bill (I am also mad) so it’s especially a hothouse environment for Hill staffers and members.

A shutdown is itself DOGE on steroids. Elon would declare whichever minority federal workers he doesn’t want to fire “essential” furlough everyone else and declare victory. You’d end up with Democrats begging the GOP to pass a CR and bring the workers back.

There is no language you could add to any bill that would avoid the looming Supreme Court showdown about the constitutionality of the Impoundment Control Act — if SCOTUS says that’s good law, then it’s good law. If they say it’s unconstitutional, no rider changes that.

Not outta the woods yet, folks

Schumer says members are still making their own decisions about how they will vote. (GOP needs 8 Dems, currently only have 2)

Per @kellyfphares

With the surrender by Senate Democrats of their power to filibuster the House-passed GOP spending measure, congressional Democrats willingly gave up their only point of leverage over the demolition of the federal government as we’ve known it by the Trump administration.

It’s clear that some Democrats regarded that leverage as imaginary to begin with: in waving the white flag Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer argued that a government shutdown would actually tighten Trump’s grip over federal agencies and personnel, and it’s also true that his Republican colleagues in both Houses showed exactly zero interest in defending Congress’s spending and program-authorizing powers from Trump, Musk, and Vought.

But whether it was the right move or not, this retreat from quite literally the last ditch of resistance to Trump’s destructive agenda means it’s now up to the courts to rein in the unbelievable power grabs being executed by this administration through multiple means. It’s always possible Republicans will have some falling out among themselves that stalls the steamroller, but barring that, we officially have a one-party authoritarian government in Washington right now. It’s sobering to realize that so much immensely fateful litigation is very likely to wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court that Trump did so much to shape, but perhaps at least five justices will find the backbone to resist Trump’s claims of a constitutional right to do whatever the hell he wants.

“While the CR bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse,” Schumer said Thursday evening on the Senate floor, while explaining why he would not vote against the GOP’s stopgap bill to fund the government. He said Trump would use the shutdown to expand his........

© Daily Intelligencer