U.S. lawmakers are set to vote Friday afternoon on a Republican-led stopgap federal funding bill, ahead of the midnight deadline, with the measure largely expected to pass to avoid a government shutdown.

In an unexpected turn, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said he'd vote to pass the bill, which would fund the government through September 30. "As bad as passing the continuing resolution is, allowing Donald Trump to take even more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option," he said on Thursday. 

Schumer later said a shutdown "would give Trump and Elon Musk carte blanche to destroy vital government services at a significantly faster rate than they can right now."

According to the Republican-led House Appropriations Committee, the stopgap bill would maintain government operations without increasing the spending of taxpayer dollars. It added that there are no cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security in the bill. 

The bill would increase defense spending by $6B from FY2024 and decrease nondefense spending by $13B. It also includes an additional $485M for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a $20B cut to Internal Revenue Service enforcement.

The bill was cleared by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives earlier this week. If the Senate passes the bill, Trump must sign it by Friday to avert a shutdown. Lawmakers will then continue working on a budget resolution, with the GOP's plan calling for $4.5T in tax cuts and reducing federal spending by $2T over ten years.

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