Schumer’s Shutdown

By Brent E. Zepke, Esq.

The Democrat Government Shutdown Lingers

Senator Charles “Chuck” Schumer (D, NY) is the minority leader of the Democrat Party in the U.S. Senate.

“How are you, Chuck, getting back down the hill?” is a question that springs into my mind when thinking of how to end the “Schumer Shutdown’ of the federal government.

Parenthesis is used around “Shutdown” to indicate that the event is subjective, rather than objective, since an estimated 80% of the functions of the federal government are continuing. Nevertheless, even shutting 20% will cause many people to feel some discomfort.

Why the Shutdown?

The federal government’s budget is on a fiscal year of October 1-September 30. In 2025 the U.S. House of Representatives, led by Speaker Mike Johnson (R, LA), passed its version of a budget, and sent it to the U.S. Senate.

The Senate, led by Majority Leader John Thune (R, SD), passed its version of a budget. Since their version was different from the one passed by the House it required 60 votes to pass. The Schumer-led Democrat senators – including Alex Padilla and Adam Schifffrom California – voted against it.

Speaker Johnson introduced a Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the government open while negotiationscontinued. During the Biden-Harris term, this same CR received bipartisan support 13 times. However, this time the Schumer-led Democrats demanded that Republicans agree to charge American citizens an additional $1.5 trillion to fund a menu of woke items for this and other countries, including health care benefits for illegal immigrants.

The Republicans declined and the Federal Government shut down.

Boulwarism

The concepts represented by the term Boulwarism in negotiating collective bargaining agreements are applicable to all types of agreements, including CRs and budgets.

“Boulwarism” was named for Lemuel Boulware, a Vice President of Human Resources for General Electric. Boulware, after doing extensive research, would begin negotiations by presenting his positions “as firm, fair, final offers.” The Supreme Court held that the “take-it-or-leave-it” stance was an evasion of the mutual obligation to engage in open and fair discussion. (NLRB v General Electric, 418 U.S. 736 1969).

Boulwarism means that one should always leave a graceful way of getting back down the hill while achieving one’s most important objectives.

“How are you getting back down the hill?”

In Director Martin Ritt’s 1967 movie Hombre, John Russell, played by Paul Newman, was standing on the top of a hill next to Cicero Grimes, played by RichardBoone. Grimes had taken off his gun to climb the hill to demand that Russell give him a money bag in order to prevent Grimes from continuing to harm the woman who had betrayed the Russell group.

Russell refused and, while pointing his rifle at Grimes asked, “How are you getting back down the hill?” As the humiliatingly out-negotiated Grimes tried to scramble back down the hill, Russell shot him.

It resonated with me, because when negotiating collective bargaining agreements, I had to make sure to not put myself in a position from which I could not “get back down the hill” gracefully.

So, how will Schumer do it?

The Brooklyn Boys

Most of the federal government continues to functionduring a shutdown, but there are ways to force an end. For example, during one shutdown, President Obama closed the White House to tours, and even closed a highway to prohibit people from viewing Mount Rushmore. Republicans eventually caved to the pressure.

This time, President Trump avoided a pressure point by finding a way to pay the military and is proceeding with other actions that were not available before the Schumer Shutdown.

Speaker Johnson, by putting the House into recess until the Senate ends the Schumer Shutdown, deprived Schumer’s Brooklyn neighbor and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D, NY) – the two are known as the “Brooklyn Boys” – of a forum for his attempt to shift the blame.

Helping Your Opponent

Once, when preparing for a negotiation I realized that my opposing counsel was about to build up expectations in his clients that were not achievable. Since that would preclude reaching a mutual agreement, I took an unusual risk and met with him prior to the negotiations to indicate he should consider not building up the expectations of his clients to heights he would not be able to reach. He listened and we achieved a fair agreement.

Schumer’s Shutdown has some similarities to my own negotiation. Our team found a way to subtlety help the striking union members find a way to agree to our terms.

My takeaway was that sometimes it may be necessary to offer a lifeline to your opponent for them to be able to reach a fair agreement.

In the Schumer Shutdown the issues are one sided in that the Democrats are the only side making any demands. All the Republicans want is a CR to keep the federal government open while they negotiate the issues contained in the Democrats’ demands.

The viciousness of the Brooklyn Boys attacks is compounding the problems, and the wonder is how they can meet in the middle.

Resolution

The question is not whether the Schumer Shutdown will be resolved, but rather how and when it will end.

The how is when one or both sides reduce or eliminate their demands.

The when is when the leaders feel that the risk of losing their power base becomes too great.

The American people will suffer some inconveniences but will benefit in several ways.

1) The objectives of each party will become obvious.

2) The leaders of the party that loses the most support will have to try and figure out how to get back down the hill without losing too much of their power.

The drama should rival that of the movie Hombre: Will Russell shoot Grimes again, or will Grimes get safely back down the hill to continue to harm others?

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