Chuck Schumer Caves on Republican Spending Bill, Will Vote for Cloture

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) caved on supporting a Republican spending bill that would keep the government from shutting down, and will be voting for cloture, according to a recent report.

Jake Sherman, the founder of Punchbowl News, wrote in a post that “Schumer will vote for cloture,” and that he “needs 6 more Dems to follow him.”

Sherman also noted that Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) “said he will already.”

According to the website for the United States Senate, the Senate adopted cloture in 1917, “a rule to allow a two-thirds majority to end a filibuster, a procedure known as ‘cloture.'”

The Senate tradition of unlimited debate has allowed for the use of the filibuster, a loosely defined term for action designed to prolong debate and delay or prevent a vote on a bill, resolution, amendment, or other debatable question. Prior to 1917 the Senate rules did not provide for a way to end debate and force a vote on a measure. That year, the Senate adopted a rule to allow a two-third majority to end a filibuster, a procedure known as “cloture.” In 1975 the Senate reduced the number of votes required for cloture from two-thirds of senators voting to three-fifths of all senators duly chosen and sworn, or 60 of the 100-member Senate.

As Breitbart News’s Bradley Jaye previously reported, Schumer previously announced that “Democrats would reject a House-passed government plan to keep the government funded past the Friday deadline through the end of the fiscal year, September 30.”

In a speech on the Senate floor, Schumer expressed that “Funding the government should be a bipartisan effort,” adding that “Republicans chose a partisan path, drafting their continuing resolution without any input.”

“Funding the government should be a bipartisan effort, but Republican[s] chose a partisan path, drafting their continuing resolution without any input — any input — from congressional Democrats,” Schumer said. “Because of that, Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on the House CR.”