Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Democrats face a critical choice on how much to work with Republicans on government funding when Congress returns next week - with a government shutdown and anger from their voters hanging in the balance.

Senate Democrats took a beating from the base during the last funding showdown in March, when they helped pave the way for Republicans to pass a GOP-crafted plan to keep the government open through early fall, averting a shutdown in the eleventh hour.

As Congress prepares to return to a month-long sprint until the funding deadline, pressure will be on Schumer to hold his ground and tensions could significantly heighten.

Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Thursday called on their GOP counterparts to “immediately meet” once Congress returns from recess next week to discuss the need to avert a shutdown, while pressing for their proposal to “fund the government in a bipartisan manner.”

They also pressed Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) for plans to address what they described as a “looming healthcare crisis,” while criticizing Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax package, which includes funding cuts to social safety net programs like Medicaid and food stamps.

The letter additionally asks about the administration’s plans for another package to claw back previously approved funding. Republicans earlier this year used the maneuver pushed through billions of dollars in cuts to foreign aid and public media funds over the summer without Democratic support — enraging Democrats who questioned how they could work with the GOP going forward.

“The government funding issue must be resolved in a bipartisan way. That is the only viable path forward,” they wrote.

The Hill has reached out to Thune and Johnson’s offices for comment.

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