Updated March 15, 2025

11:04 AM EDT

Kayla Bartkowski / Getty Images

Key Takeaways

  • The Senate passed a bill Friday funding the federal government through September, cutting off the threat of a shutdown.
  • Though in the minority, Senate Democrats could have blocked the budget using the Senate’s filibuster rule. Ten Democrats sided with the Republicans to avert a shutdown.
  • Some Democrats wanted to use a shutdown threat to restrain President Trump and his cost-cutting advisor, Elon Musk, from slashing federal programs without Congress’s approval.

The Senate passed a bill Friday funding the federal government through September, averting a government shutdown.

Senators voted 62-38, with 10 Democrats joining Republicans to put the bill over the 60-vote threshold needed to bypass a filibuster. The vote ended the possibility of the government shutting down Saturday after a stopgap funding measure was set to expire. The new stopgap bill then passed on a vote of 54-46. The bill now moves to President Donald Trump’s desk. He is reportedly expected to sign it.

This new bill clears the way for Republican lawmakers to hammer out a new federal budget that includes trillions of dollars in tax cuts.

The vote thwarted an effort by some Democratic lawmakers who had wanted to use a shutdown threat to curtail President Donald Trump’s mass firing of federal workers.

Some Democrats, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a representative from New York, had urged Senate Democrats to use the threat of a government shutdown as leverage to demand concessions from the majority GOP.

Ocasio-Cortez and other House Democrats, who nearly unanimously voted against the continuing resolution, argued that it empowered Trump and his influential advisor, Elon Musk, to continue their campaign of firing federal workers and canceling government grants and contracts, bypassing the authority of Congress to control the government’s spending levels.

The fizzling out of the shutdown confrontation removes one X-factor from a federal policy outlook full of uncertainty amid Trump’s rapidly changing trade efforts.

Update, March 15, 2025: This article has been updated to include the passage of the bill.

Investopedia requires writers to use primary sources to support their work. These include white papers, government data, original reporting, and interviews with industry experts. We also reference original research from other reputable publishers where appropriate. You can learn more about the standards we follow in producing accurate, unbiased content in our editorial policy.