Democrat lawmaker blasts Senate colleagues for caving in shutdown deal

Democrat negotiator reveals agreement that won his vote to advance shutdown-ending effort

Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia said he wanted to prevent further DOGE-style layoffs and get back pay for dismissed employees.

Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., ripped into the reasoning that led eight Senate Democrats to seal the fate of the government shutdown on Sunday. 

As the top Democrat on the House Oversight Subcommittee overseeing government efficiency, Stansbury said the bill’s promise of job protections for federal employees was a safeguard that Congress should not have needed to spell out.

"While I appreciate the bipartisan effort that provided additional protection for our federal workers in the bill, it shouldn’t have been necessary in the first place," Stansbury said.

SENATE VOTE TO END GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN IGNITES DEMOCRAT CIVIL WAR

Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., departs a closed-door meeting with some of Jeffrey Epstein's accusers at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Sept. 2, 2025. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)

Stansbury, like many Democrats, has opposed the Trump administration's blanket dismissal of federal employees as a way to cut government spending through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), arguing that the orders violate employment laws.

"The president’s actions in conducting mass firings during the shutdown and threatening to withhold back pay are both illegal under current law," Stansbury said.

Her comments highlight ongoing Democrat division over the shutdown’s end and the party priorities that went unresolved.

With key Democrats' help, the Senate overcame the threat of a filibuster on Sunday before finally passing the short-term spending deal on Monday evening in a 60-40 vote. That bill, which now heads to the House of Representatives, will end the ongoing 42-day government shutdown if passed.

The package would fund the government through Jan. 30 of next year. It includes three of the government’s 12 spending bills: appropriations for the legislative branch, agriculture and Veterans Affairs and military construction. 

Notably, its language also forbids the Trump administration from conducting mass reductions in force (RIFs) and would reinstate federal employees fired during the shutdown with back pay. Just hours before Sunday's vote, the language on RIFs clinched the needed support for the package’s success.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., was one of the eight Democrats who helped advance the bill over the possibility of a filibuster. When asked if the government shutdown had been worth it, Kaine said he thought so, pointing to its language on federal workers. 

"To federal employees who are not going to be traumatized by RIFs going forward? Yeah," Kaine said.

MIKE JOHNSON SPEAKS OUT AFTER SENATE BREAKTHROUGH ON GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., speaks to reporters outside the Senate Democrats' caucus lunch meeting in the U.S. Capitol on Nov. 6, 2025. (Bill Clark/Getty Images)

Kaine, who helped secure the inclusion of that language, said that some sort of deal on federal employees had been a key consideration for him since the outset of the shutdown on Oct.1. 

"I went to Sen. Schumer at the start of this and told him, ‘Here’s where I am, and here’s where I’m likely to be. I’m with you for a long time, but if there’s a path forward that can help this federal workforce, which is so huge in Virginia, you [have to] know I’m going to be real sensitive to that.’" 

Virginia has the country's third-largest concentration of federal workers, according to the Library of Congress. 

Stansbury, who has also outspokenly opposed the Trump administration’s mass firings as a way to cut government funding, disagreed sharply with Kaine and argued that the fight over federal workforces — and healthcare for that matter — could have taken place outside a shutdown.

"This shutdown and the impending healthcare crisis were both completely avoidable," Stansbury said. "The president and GOP careened us towards a shutdown with the passage of the Big Ugly Bill this summer," she added, referring to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.

MERKLEY NEARLY BREAKS BOOKER'S FILIBUSTER RECORD, WINS HIS PRAISE FOR FIGHTING 'TRUMP'S AUTHORITARIAN TACTICS'

Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-N.M., speaks during the House Oversight And Government Reform Committee meeting at the U.S. Capitol on Mar. 25, 2025 in Washington. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)

She noted that the key demand Democrats had made during the shutdown, an extension of COVID-era Obamacare healthcare subsidies, had gone completely unaddressed — even in the wake of over a month of gridlock.

"A failure to pass appropriations bills, an unwillingness to negotiate and six weeks of a complete lockout of the House have failed to resolve the healthcare crisis as millions of Americans are facing the prospect of losing their health insurance or being able to put a roof over their head," Stansbury said.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

With the spending bill having cleared the Senate, the House of Representatives will likely consider the Senate spending bill on Wednesday. 

Leo Briceno is a politics reporter for the congressional team at Fox News Digital. He was previously a reporter with World Magazine.