Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, broke with his party on Thursday and said he would vote for a Republican-written bill to keep federal funding flowing past a midnight Friday deadline, making a forceful case for why Democrats could not allow a government shutdown that many of them have demanded.
Emerging on the Senate floor after a third consecutive day of internal Democratic discussions about how to proceed, Mr. Schumer said he would vote to clear the way for a final vote on the G.O.P. bill, which would fund the government largely at current levels through Sept. 30. He argued that if Democrats refused to do so, it would lead to a shutdown that would cede too much power to President Trump and Elon Musk.
“The Republican bill is a terrible option,” Mr. Schumer said. “It is deeply partisan. It doesn’t address far too many of this country’s needs. But I believe allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option.”
His announcement came little more than 24 hours before a shutdown deadline. If Congress fails to approve legislation extending federal funding, it will lapse at 12:01 a.m. on Saturday.
Mr. Schumer has long seen responsibility for government shutdowns as a political albatross, and his position was the clearest signal yet that Democrats might relent and let the measure pass on Friday despite deep reservations. All but one House Democrat voted against the plan on Tuesday, and many of them, along with their colleagues in the Senate, have spent the last few days agitating to hold firm against it in defiance of Mr. Trump.
It was unclear how many Democrats might join Mr. Schumer. Senate Republicans are expected to need the support of at least eight Democrats to steer around a filibuster. Other than Mr. Schumer, only one Democrat, Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, has said he would support the bill.
Many other Senate Democrats on Thursday were openly agonizing over what they described as a choice between the lesser of two evils: supporting a bill that would give the Trump administration wide latitude to continue its unilateral efforts to slash government employees and programs, or a shutdown that would also give Mr. Trump and his team broad leeway to decide what to fund.
Several Democrats — including both centrists and progressives — declared that they could not back legislation that would give that kind of power to the president and Mr. Musk. They groused that Republicans had unilaterally drafted the legislation and refused to consider any changes to win their votes, essentially daring them to take the blame for a politically toxic shutdown.
“What everyone is wrestling with is that either outcome is terrible,” said Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico. “This president has put us in a position where, in either direction, lots of people’s constituents are going to get hurt and hurt badly. So people are wrestling with what is the least worst outcome.”
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