Tempers are running high among congressional Democrats as a possible government shutdown looms, with party leaders and rank-and-file members locked in a tense debate over how hard to fight President Donald Trump on health care and funding priorities. As the October 1, 2025, deadline to keep the federal government open approaches, the fractures within the Democratic caucus—especially between the House and Senate—are once again coming to the fore.
According to reporting from Axios, the weekly House Democratic caucus meeting on September 9 turned into a venting session directed at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who remains under fire for his role in supporting a Republican-backed funding bill in March that most House Democrats opposed. "There was anticipatory anger rooted in what went down in March... Schumer was named explicitly," one House Democrat told Axios on condition of anonymity. The sentiment was echoed by another attendee: "We don't want to get screwed again by the Senate."
The anger is not just about past wounds. The government is set to shut down on October 1 unless Congress can agree on a measure to extend federal funding. Neither the House nor the Senate is on track to pass all of their annual appropriations bills by the end of September, making a short-term continuing resolution almost inevitable. This uncertainty is fueling anxiety among Democrats, who fear that their leaders might once again compromise on key priorities—especially health care—in negotiations with Republicans.
Several moderate House Democrats, including Reps. Kim Schrier (D-Wash.), Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), and Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), stood up during the closed-door meeting to stress that the party should "put up a fight over government funding," Axios reported. The concern, as voiced by one member, was that "we aren't sending a message that fights enough." (A spokesperson for Schneider disputed that he had criticized leadership specifically.)
The focus of Democratic demands, according to lawmakers and leadership sources, is clear: any deal to fund the government must include a reversal of certain health care provisions enacted by Republicans. Specifically, Democrats are pushing for the extension of Affordable Care Act (ACA) premium tax credits and the reversal of Medicaid cuts. These demands are not just talking points—fifteen million Americans are at risk of losing health care coverage due to recent policy changes, and rural hospitals face imminent closure, according to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who told HuffPost, "The Republicans have put in place a storm that’s about to overtake American families: Fifteen million Americans will lose their health care coverage, and millions more will see the costs go up for their private insurance, and rural hospitals will close."
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), a centrist, echoed Warren’s concerns, stating in a video posted online, "If the president wants my vote, he has to negotiate. One place to start is to walk back cuts to health care." Slotkin also called for the Trump administration to release billions in frozen funding for critical health research.
Democrats hold a crucial piece of leverage in the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to end debate on funding legislation. This gives them the ability to block Republican initiatives—if they stick together. But that unity is precisely what is in question. The memory of March’s funding fight, when Schumer and a handful of Senate Democrats voted to avert a shutdown by supporting a GOP bill, still stings. The backlash from the Democratic base was swift and severe, with many accusing party leaders of caving too easily.
Senate Minority Leader Schumer appears to have learned from that episode. This week, he reminded Republicans that any deal to fund the government would require bipartisan support. "We will not enable Republicans’ carnage of this country. We won’t bail Republicans out as the cost of health care, groceries, school supplies, rent, electricity all go up and up and up," Schumer said on Monday, as reported by HuffPost. "We Democrats don’t want to see a government shutdown. But avoiding one means Republicans have to show they are serious about having a real, substantive, serious negotiation."
Yet some Democratic senators remain wary of being blamed for a shutdown, which would put federal workers out of a job and disrupt services for millions. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who voted in March to keep the government open, told HuffPost, "It was wrong for the Republicans to do it. It’s wrong for us to do it, too. Millions of people depend on that, and there’s a lot of workers who won’t get paid, and they won’t get that back." Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), another Democrat who voted with Republicans in March, suggested that the political calculus may have shifted, but stopped short of making any firm commitments: "We’re having a number of discussions about a variety of things. We’re taking one day at a time right now."
Republicans, for their part, have not settled on a unified strategy to keep the government open past the September 30 deadline. Some favor a short-term extension, while others want a longer continuing resolution. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said Tuesday that Republicans are negotiating a plan to fund a handful of agencies while putting the rest on temporary autopilot, and placed the blame for any potential shutdown squarely on Democrats. "As we get closer to the funding deadline, we recognize the shutdown chatter from the left grows louder," Johnson said. "Some of these people seem to enjoy this. It seems Democrats may take the path of maximum resistance."
Outside Congress, pressure is mounting on Democratic leaders to take a more aggressive stance. Progressive groups like Indivisible and commentators such as Ezra Klein have argued that Democrats should be willing to risk a shutdown rather than "complicity" in what they see as the Trump administration’s increasingly authoritarian policies. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) captured this sentiment, asking online, "Why should Congress continue to fund Trump’s totalitarian seizure of power if the budget has no meaningful new checks on his corruption?" In an interview, Murphy added, "A [continuing resolution] isn’t worth the paper it’s written on if the president is going to act illegally and refuse to spend the money that’s in it."
Despite these divisions, party leaders are eager to present a united front. Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told HuffPost that the group is "united with House Democrats in making it clear that we won’t support Trump partisan attacks on people’s health care." And Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) expressed confidence that Democrats are better aligned and more communicative heading into this spending fight than they were in March: "I think we’ve been clearer and been more communicative, both internally and externally. We’re a little bit more on our front foot, they’re a little bit more on their back foot, and we’re clear that we’re not going to get jammed."
As the deadline nears, the stakes could hardly be higher. Democrats are under pressure from their base to stand firm on health care and checks on presidential power, while also weighing the risks of a shutdown that could hurt millions of Americans. Whether the party can maintain unity—and whether Schumer and Jeffries can avoid the mistakes of March—may well determine not only the fate of government funding, but also the trajectory of the 2026 midterm elections. For now, the only certainty is that the next few weeks will test the resolve and cohesion of the Democratic Party like never before.
