Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D, N.Y.) spoke from the Senate floor a day after he said Democrats were prepared to shut down the federal government. Photo: Kayla Bartkowski/ WASHINGTON—Senate Democrats took the threat of a government shutdown off the table,

Schumer’s comments are a change in tune from Wednesday when he said that Democrats would not provide the votes needed to approve the House-passed stopgap funding measure. He argued that the Senate should instead vote on a “clean” bill that would maintain spending levels for 30 days to enable bipartisan negotiations.