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Some 90 minutes before Senate Republicans staved off a shutdown on a nearly party-line vote, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and nine others crossed the aisle to advance it in a key procedural vote – despite intensifying pressure from their caucus to sink it outright. The legislation, however, only required a simple majority in the chamber for final passage, and all but two in the group ultimately opposed it. Schumer argued his party had only bad options when it came to shutting down the government – possibly for months – to challenge Trump, or accepting a GOP bill that Democrats have warned would cut spending to programs like veterans’ health care or Washington, DC, firefighters and police. “I believe it is the best way to minimize the harm that the Trump administration will do to the American people,” Schumer argued in defense of his decision to clear a pathway for the bill’s passage. “Clearly, this is a Hobson’s choice. The CR is a bad bill, but as bad as the CR is, I believe allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option,” he continued. Democratic lawmakers who crossed party lines to advance the spending bill: Sens. Chuck Schumer, John Fetterman, Catherine Cortez Masto, Dick Durbin and Brian Schatz, Maggie Hassan, Kristen Gillibrand, Gary Peters, Jeanne Shaheen and Angus King.