The New York senator said as bad as the GOP bill is, a shutdown would be worse, giving President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk "carte blanche" as they tear through the government.
The Pentagon is continuing its purge of photographs it considers promote DEI, and although it said historical photographs would be protected, at least three images related to the B-29 Superfortress bomber that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, have been removed - likely because the aircraft was called the Enola Gay.
The images that have disappeared include a historical black-and-white photo of the Enola Gay "undergoing modification at Oklahoma City Air Depot to be able to drop atomic weapons," according to a thumbnail of the photograph, which remains. Two others that mention a grandson of a member of the original Enola Gay crew flying a refurbished B-29 to honor his family have also been deleted, although their thumbnails are also still visible.
A request for comment to the Pentagon on why the Enola Gay images were removed was not immediately returned.
Schumer said on the Senate floor that the choice between the GOP spending bill and a government shutdown is "no choice at all" but that a shutdown would be "a far worse option."
It is still unclear if the legislation will pass. Republicans hold a 53-47 seat majority and need 60 votes to move forward.
Many Democrats have said they will vote against it and seemed willing to risk a shutdown Friday at midnight as they have criticized Trump's efforts to make major cuts to government agencies.
Others have argued that the shutdown could potentially worsen the cuts across the federal government. Schumer said a shutdown could hurt veterans programs, threaten social security and slow the courts.
"I believe it is my job to make the best choice to minimize the harms" to the American people," Schumer said.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford says he feels the temperature in Trump's trade war with Canada is being lowered after meeting with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick in Washington.
The leader of Canada's most populous province says he feels positive about it despite Trump doubling down on his anti-Canada rhetoric during an Oval Office meeting earlier Thursday with NATO chief Mark Rutte.
"To be honest with you, Canada only works as a state," Trump said before going on to say that he's not going to change his mind on the tariffs he's imposing on Canada. "We're not going to bend."
Ford backed down from a 25% surcharge on electricity to the U.S. after Lutnick called him and offered a meeting Thursday. He says there will be another meeting next week.
Columbia University says it has expelled or suspended some students who took over a campus building during pro-Palestinian protests last spring and had temporarily revoked the diplomas of some students who have since graduated.
In a campus-wide email sent Thursday, the university said its judicial board had issued its sanctions against dozens of students who occupied Hamilton Hall based on its "evaluation of the severity of behaviors."
The university did not provide a breakdown of how many students were expelled, suspended or had their degree revoked.