WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) issued the following statement after voting against cloture on the Republican continuing resolution:

“Today, we went to the Senate floor needing to choose between two awful options. We could move forward on a disastrous funding bill that enables Elon Musk’s and President Trump’s ongoing teardown of the government and cuts billions of dollars from defense spending, or we could shut down the government, furloughing hundreds of thousands of federal employees who are already concerned about their job security, and potentially even the courts that are currently the sole check on their power.

“This was a false choice. There was always a third option: letting the appropriators do their jobs, finish the nearly completed FY25 spending process, and give the American people a bipartisan solution that would allow them to feel confidence in their government. This is the option that we should have taken, and the option that I have spent weeks pushing for. Republican leadership refused to entertain this idea.

“Given the two choices before us this afternoon, I voted to block the Republican funding bill that enables Musk’s and Trump’s piecemeal government shutdown. Some of my Democratic colleagues chose differently, and I respect their decision. Blame doesn’t lie with Democrats who were forced to choose between two terrible outcomes. It belongs to Trump and his allies in Congress who rammed through a partisan, hardline spending bill so they can move on to their priority of cutting Medicaid to pass more tax cuts for billionaires, and my Republican colleagues who would rather consign themselves to irrelevance than protect their constitutional appropriations responsibility from executive overreach. 

“Our nation deserves better than flawed processes that lead to terrible outcomes like we’re seeing today. We need to empower appropriators, work together in a bipartisan way to negotiate our spending bills, and complete the FY26 appropriations process smoothly and swiftly.”

Senator Coons is the Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.