Schumer, Democrats Set to Cave in Shutdown Fight

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (Sipa USA)
Sipa USA
By Yuval Rosenberg and Michael Rainey

Good evening. On this date five years ago, President Donald Trump declared the Covid-19 outbreak in the United States a national emergency. Today, we've got updates on the latest emergencies.

Schumer, Democrats Set to Cave in Shutdown Fight

With a midnight Friday deadline looming, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer reportedly told Democrats at a meeting Thursday that he would vote to advance a House-passed Republican funding bill and avoid a government shutdown. Democrats are reportedly poised to provide enough votes to allow the GOP continuing resolution to clear a procedural hurdle tomorrow, with just hours to spare before current federal funding expires.

"While the CR bill is very bad, the potential for a shutdown has consequences for America that are much, much worse," Schumer said this evening on the Senate floor. "For sure, the Republican bill is a terrible option. It is not a clean CR. 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."

Internal Democratic deliberations reportedly got heated Thursday for the third day in a row, with reporters saying they could hear shouting from behind the closed doors. Democrats are facing a fateful choice. They can allow the Republican funding bill to pass, keeping agencies open through September - but also giving President Donald Trump and Elon Musk wide latitude on spending decisions. Or they can allow federal funding to lapse, with the knowledge that the Trump administration will have significant power to decide what offices stay open.

Schumer and Democrats also face intense pressure from progressives and activists to mount some type of resistance and construct some type of roadblocks to prevent Trump and Musk from bulldozing federal agencies - and, on the other hand, they must contend with fear that a shutdown could backfire on them politically and advance the DOGE effort to reduce the size of government.

Schumer had announced yesterday that Republicans did not have the votes to advance their bill. Republicans need at least eight Democrats to help clear the 60-vote procedural hurdle, though once the bill is brought to a vote, it can pass with a simple majority. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania is the only Democrat who has publicly declared support for the House-passed plan.

Democrats have instead called for a short-term funding extension that would allow for the resumption of bipartisan negotiations on individual spending bills - talks in which they could again press to constrain the DOGE cuts.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday that it was "time for Democrats to fish or cut bait." He told reporters he was open to a deal allowing a vote on Democrats' short-term bill, which would fail, if Democrats allow to move ahead with a vote on the House-passed plan.

Several moderate Democrats who might have provided the necessary votes have announced their opposition to the Republican resolution and the procedural vote required to advance the plan. Sens. Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly of Arizona and Tina Smith of Minnesota announced Thursday that they would oppose both. Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado has said the same.

"This bill would wipe out congressional oversight, letting Trump cut and redirect funding however he wants," Hickenlooper said in a video posted to X. "I'm not going to give President Trump more authority to undermine powers that rightly belong to Congress and to the people of Colorado."

Kelly and Gallego also invoked Musk in explaining their decisions. "I cannot vote for the Republican plan to give unchecked power to Donald Trump and Elon Musk," Kelly said in a statement. "I told Arizonans I'd stand up when it was right for our state and our country, and this is one of those moments."

Other Democrats have also announced they would vote against the Republican resolution, though without stating a position on the procedural vote, which holds more practical significance.

The bottom line: It looks like there won't be a shutdown. Schumer's maneuvering was a transparent effort to save face and signal that Democrats are fighting the Trump agenda. His decision avoids what Republicans were going to call a "Schumer shutdown." That may ease pressure on some moderates, but it's also bound to leave liberals apoplectic and add to Democratic disputes over the direction of the party as Republicans control all levers of power in Washington. Republicans stuck together, and Democrats got outplayed.

Judge Orders Trump Admin to Rehire Thousands of Federal Workers

A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to reinstate thousands of probationary employees who were fired improperly at six federal agencies.

Judge William Alsup of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California issued a ruling finding that communications sent to agency heads by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) directing them to fire probationary employees were "unlawful."

The judge's order requires the departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, Energy, Interior, Agriculture and Treasury to rehire thousands of employees who were fired on or around February 13, 2025, the date of the OPM messages. The judge said the mass firings carried out at that time were part of an improper effort to slash the federal workforce by focusing on newly hired or newly promoted workers, who lack full civil service protections.

"It is a sad day when our government would fire a good employee and say it was based on performance when they know good and well that is a lie," Alsup said. "That should not have been done in our country."

Just a little friendly advice? Attorneys representing the OPM have argued that the messages sent to agency heads were simply guidance, not orders. However, multiple agency officials have stated that the OPM ordered them to fire workers.

Alsup had ordered the acting director of OPM, Charles Ezell, to testify on the matter, but Ezell has refused.

At a hearing Thursday, Alsup said he thinks the Trump administration is "stonewalling" the court and refusing to explain itself fully and honestly. "I tend to doubt that you're telling me the truth," he told Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelsey Helland, the sole Justice Department lawyer in attendance.

A big setback? If the ruling holds up, it will deal a major blow to the Trump administration's effort to eviscerate the federal workforce. It will not, however, derail that effort since administration officials have other avenues available to them to fire workers.

White House White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the administration would fight the judge's "absurd and unconstitutional order."

"A single judge is attempting to unconstitutionally seize the power of hiring and firing from the Executive Branch," Leavitt said in a statement. "The President has the authority to exercise the power of the entire executive branch - singular district court judges cannot abuse the power of the entire judiciary to thwart the President's agenda. If a federal district court judge would like executive powers, they can try and run for President themselves."

Trump Threatens 200% Retaliatory Tariff on EU Wine and Spirits

President Trump pushed ahead in his rapidly escalating trade war Thursday as he threatened to impose a 200% tariff on wine and spirits from the European Union if the EU enacts a 50% import tax on U.S. whiskey, as planned.

The EU announced its tariff plan in response to Trump's imposition of a 25% tax on steel and aluminum imports from Europe and all other trading partners earlier this week. The whiskey tariff is scheduled to take effect on April 1, a day before Trump plans to impose a new set of reciprocal tariffs on trading partners around the world.

Writing on his social media platform Thursday, Trump demanded that the EU tariff on whiskey be eliminated - or else. "If this Tariff is not removed immediately, the U.S. will shortly place a 200% Tariff on all WINES, CHAMPAGNES, & ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF FRANCE AND OTHER E.U. REPRESENTED COUNTRIES," he wrote. "This will be great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the U.S."

Whatever effect the tariff may have on the U.S. wine and liquor industry, a French businessman said it would be devastating in his country. "A 200 percent tax on European wines and spirits would mean an immediate halt to all shipments to the United States," said Gabriel Picard, chairman of the Federation of Wine and Spirits Exporters, per The New York Times. "That's almost 4 billion euros wiped off the French trade balance, for zero gain."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that trade officials from the EU and U.S. would discuss the matter Friday, in the hope that the new tariffs can be avoided. "We don't like tariffs because we think tariffs are taxes and they are bad for business and they are bad for consumers," she said. "We have always said at the same time that we will defend our interests. We've said it, and we've shown it, but at the same time I also want to emphasize that we are open for negotiations."

Stocks tumble again: The S&P 500 dropped into correction territory Thursday, falling 1.39% on the day to 5,521. The index is now down10.1% from its record close on February 19. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down, as well, falling 537 points, or 1.30%.

Asked about the latest market decline Thursday, Trump said he plans to stay the course and again described the trade deficit as a kind of theft that he intends to eliminate. "I'm not going to bend at all," Trump said. "We've been ripped off for years, and we're not going to be ripped off anymore."

Some investors fear there could be more turbulence ahead. Alpine Macro, a research firm in Montreal that focuses on global trends, said in a research note Thursday quoted by CNBC that the "moment of maximum tariff-related pain likely remains ahead, potentially peaking April-July, given credible threats of more 25% sectoral tariffs (autos, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, etc.), reciprocal tariffs on key trading partners, higher tariffs targeting China and the E.U., and additional non-border-related tariffs on Canada and Mexico." The analysts warned that markets have not yet fully accounted for these possible negative shocks, suggesting that stocks prices could continue to fall.

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