WASHINGTON — Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer said Thursday that he’ll vote to advance a House-passed stopgap funding measure needed by Friday night to avert a partial government shutdown, likely providing cover for other Democrats still on the fence.

The comments from Schumer represent an about-face one day after he declared opposition to the full-year continuing resolution. He had instead demanded a vote on a one-month funding extension that would provide time to finish the detailed fiscal 2025 appropriations bills.

In a floor speech Thursday night after several days of closed-door caucus meetings where Democrats aired their views, Schumer said he came around to the fact that a shutdown would be worse than passing Republicans’ CR.

“I believe it is my job to make the best choice for the country, to minimize the harms to the American people,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said. “Therefore I will vote to keep the government open and not shut it down.”

At least seven Democratic votes are needed for cloture because Republicans lack the 60 votes required under Senate rules to advance it on their own. Senators and aides expect a final vote on the measure Friday; it wasn’t yet clear if a cloture vote would be required.

One Democrat, John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, previously said he’d vote for the House-passed CR. Several others declared their opposition to the measure, labeling it a “blank check” and a “power grab” by the Trump administration to spend money — or “impound” it, preventing funds from flowing to congressionally directed purposes.

But at least a handful of Democrats had remained tight-lipped about how they would vote on the House-passed measure or on the critical procedural vote needed to advance it.

Some who wouldn’t comment Thursday included Kirsten Gillibrand, Schumer’s fellow New Yorker; Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat retiring after this Congress; Michigan’s Gary Peters, another prospective retiree; and Jack Reed of Rhode Island.

The Republican-controlled House passed the six-month CR on a mostly party-line vote, saying it was needed to stave off a partial shutdown and there was not enough time left to finish regular appropriations bills.

President Donald Trump endorsed the bill and just one House Republican, Kentucky’s Thomas Massie, voted no. Perennially endangered Democrat Jared Golden of Maine, representing a Trump district, was the lone Democrat to back the measure.

Progressive groups came out hard in opposition to the measure, arguing that Democrats should be willing to accept a shutdown rather than acquiesce.

But Democrats didn’t have the votes to pass a CR through April 11 drafted by Senate Appropriations ranking member Patty Murray of Washington and her House counterpart, Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut.

And enough of them appear to have decided a shutdown would be worse than handing Trump a win, with potentially hundreds of thousands more federal workers furloughed or forced to work without pay, compounding the mass layoffs and spending cuts already in the works.

“A shutdown would give Donald Trump and Elon Musk carte blanche to destroy vital government services at a significantly faster rate than they can right now,” Schumer said in his speech, referring to the Department of Government Efficiency leader and the world’s wealthiest individual.

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