Senate Democrats are starting to revolt against President Trump’s agenda on Capitol Hill amid fallout from an initial freeze on all foreign assistance, warning Republicans that failure to work together will incur consequences.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) on Thursday reversed support for Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, as uncertainty and chaos plague U.S-funded aid projects around the world following stop-work orders issued by the administration last week.
“I was inclined to vote for Elise Stefanik for U.N. ambassador, but as the days have unfolded, I have become more and more alarmed at the scope and reach of the impact of the freeze on funding for activities for USAID around the world, and have said I’m not going to vote for nominees until it’s reversed,” Coons said during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee business meeting.
Stefanik’s nomination advanced out of the Republican-led committee on Thursday with support from some Democrats, setting her up for a floor vote.
But Coons’s opposition, as well as that from other Democrats on the committee, follows moves by Democrats earlier this week to stymie Trump’s agenda amid outrage over the president’s flood of executive actions.
Democrats on Tuesday succeeded in blocking Republican-led legislation to sanction the ICC, and nearly two dozen Democrats voted against Trump’s nominee for Transportation secretary, in part over outrage of an initial Trump freeze on U.S. federal funding.
Still, Democrats have few good options to block Trump’s agenda on the Senate floor, where Republicans hold a slight majority, 53 to 47.
But some Republicans have defected in the face of Trump’s most controversial actions. Trump rescinded the domestic, federal funding freeze amid outrage from Republicans. And last week, Vice President Vance was required to break a tie vote for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth after three Republican senators voted “no.”
The Senate’s filibuster is one way Democrats hold power to block legislation. The vote on the ICC bill Tuesday failed to garner the 60 votes needed as Democrats united in rejecting a measure they opposed over content, not merit. They criticized Republicans as failing to reach a bipartisan agreement.
Democrats could slow-roll the nominee confirmation process by exercising a hold on nominees. But Democrats have not publicly expressed support for this action, and criticized Republicans in the previous Congress for holds on Biden’s nominees.
Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) said it’s too early to tell if outrage against Trump will unify Democrats completely against the president’s agenda, especially on areas viewed as important to U.S. national security.
While Schatz voted to advance Stefanik’s nomination out of the committee, he said it was a “close call” because of his frustration over the foreign aid freeze.
“For me, if they resolve this foreign aid pause, that will go a long way in demonstrating that we still have some bipartisan consensus that we want to be powerful across the world.”
Schatz said he voted for Stefanik because he had earlier committed to being a yes, adding “my word is my bond.”
But he urged his Republican colleagues to keep up pressure on the State Department to clarify exemptions for aid organizations and NGOs providing life-saving work despite the initial stop work orders.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a memo Tuesday night exempting some humanitarian assistance and life-saving medication distribution from the stop-work orders, but the initial order produced a chilling effect on NGOs and it’s not clear what operations have resumed.
“The money is not flowing,” Schatz said, and said an NGO warned him that “babies would be dying by the weekend” if action to restore funding is not clear.
“This is not the kind of thing we can get back to on Monday, we all have to exert pressure and make sure the State Department gets this right, and I’m talking about in the next 24 hours.”
At least two other Democrats present at the committee business meeting voted no on Stefanik’s nomination, a mix of opposition to her foreign policy positions and in response to the funding freeze. Not all senators were present for the initial vote but are being recorded.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the ranking member of the committee, voted to advance Stefanik’s nomination but said the Trump administration was betting on Republicans holding back criticism of the foreign aid freeze.
“I resent hearing, not from Secretary Rubio, but from other members of the administration, that the only people who care about these issues are Democrats, and this is a Democrat versus Republican issue,” Shaheen said.
“I don’t happen to believe that… I hope that all of you on the other side of the aisle will point out this is not a partisan issue, this is about what are we going to do to ensure that our influence continues around the world in the interest of our own national security.”
Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), said he agreed with Shaheen that foreign aid is not a partisan issue, though he has backed the freeze.
“Admittedly there have been some inconveniences along the line, but they’re continuing to work on this,” he said.
The foreign aid freeze, while supposed to be exempting certain humanitarian assistance, has still stopped work on democratic resilience programs, anti-corruption efforts, education initiatives, infrastructure development, among other programs. Democrats and Republicans have generally supported these programs as an essential tool of America’s soft power and that pushes back against influence from adversaries and competitors like China and Russia.
