Dem
47
GOP
53
If the government fails to pass a bill funding the government by Oct. 1, it will shut down. Republicans can't solve this using the budget reconciliation process, so they will have to get the Senate Democrats to buy in, otherwise the blue team could filibuster the funding bill(s). Now Democrats are starting to think about what they want in return for their cooperation. This is all very arcane stuff and the public doesn't understand it very well. If the Democrats block the bill(s), they will say: "The Republicans control the whole government so it is up to them to fund it." On rare occasions, it's good to be in the minority.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) does not want to find himself in a situation where the Democratic base is out for a fight with Trump and wants a shutdown to demonstrate that the Republicans can't govern, while his own instincts tell him to avoid a shutdown. He definitely does not want the theme to be "Democrats in disarray," so he has to get all the noses pointing in the same direction and there isn't much time left for nose alignment.
The recent rescissions bill that the Republicans passed is on everyone's mind. Sen. Angus King (I-ME) said: "Why vote for an appropriation bill if two weeks from now they can submit a rescissions package and undo everything that is in the bill? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I am not going to be fooled twice." The now-proven ability of Republicans to retroactively cancel appropriations that already passed Congress is going to make this fight very difficult.
Schumer would prefer a bipartisan process in which the senators work together to produce a mutually agreeable appropriations package. This puts him in direct conflict with OMB Director Russell Vought, who thinks Elon Musk and the DOGEys were cowards for not slashing spending much, much more.
What happened last time is that there were no appropriations on time, so a stop-gap continuing resolution was passed to fund the government for a few weeks. Then another and another until the Democrats caved. Many Democrats don't want to see that movie again. They know how it ends.
Some Democrats want a written agreement that there will be no rescissions and no impoundment. But others are focusing on the idea that Congress, not the Executive Branch (and certainly not Vought) has the power of the purse. Other Democrats are talking about specific policy goodies they want in return for cooperating. They are all over the map on this. (V)