President Trump signed into law a measure to keep the government open through the end of September, the White House said on Saturday. The Senate approved the short-term spending bill on Friday, largely along party lines, but an earlier procedural vote exposed deep divisions among Democrats, where 10 Democrats helped Republicans advance the bill to a final vote and avoid a filibuster. The bill included a small increase in defense spending and about $13 billion in cuts to non-defense programs. The bill was in line with GOP promises to cut domestic spending. Democrats characterized the bill as a "blank check" to Trump because it makes no attempt to rein in the administration's ongoing efforts to cut spending previously approved by Congress. Friday's vote highlighted deep divisions within the Democratic party over how to respond to Trump in his second term. The decision by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to support the funding bill sparked an intense backlash from House Democrats , who almost unanimously opposed it. "I think there is a deep sense of outrage and betrayal and this is not just progressive Democrats — this is across the board, the entire party," New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told reporters Thursday night at a party retreat in Leesburg, Va. "I think it is a huge slap in the face," she said. The Senate Democrats who opposed the bill — a stopgap measure known as a continuing resolution, or CR — argued that helping to pass it would give Trump and his adviser Elon Musk the leeway to continue slashing the federal government without oversight. But they also acknowledged that a shutdown would bring pain and disruption. New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich said Thursday that Democrats were wrestling with what the "least worst outcome" would be. "This president has put us in a position where, in either direction lots of people's constituents are gonna get hurt, and hurt badly," said Heinrich, who voted against advancing the bill. "I think when you confront a bully, you have to confront a bully. And I'm not gonna vote for this CR. But I fully respect people who've come to a different conclusion because in either pathway — this is a president who is very comfortable with the pain that either direction will create." Schumer also said that Democrats were given a choice between two bad options, but he determined that keeping the government open would "minimize the harms to the American people." "As bad as passing the CR is, allowing Donald Trump to take even more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option," Schumer said on the Senate floor Thursday.
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