Senate and House Minority Leaders Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) are playing the long game in their battle against what they view as the Trump administration’s efforts to attempt to seize Congress’s power of the purse. The Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency gained access to the government’s payment system last week and shuttered the U.S. Agency for International Development without congressional approval.

The top Democratic leaders recognize the threat of a government shutdown looming in mid-March could give them their best opportunity to fire back at Musk and the Trump administration. While Republicans control both chambers of Congress, they have a razor-thin majority in the House. The party breakdown in the House is expected to be 217 Republicans to 215 Democrats, with at least three vacancies expected once Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) resigns to become U.N. ambassador.

“At this moment, they’re not at full strength and will certainly be 217 Republicans, 215 Democrats. That will be the smallest majority since the 1800s,” said Jeffries, speaking to reporters at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon.

“Even when they had full strength, all we need is three, three principled Republicans in the House, and a lot of the madness and extremism that has been unleashed on the American people can be halted, particularly as it relates to the upcoming spending agreement that we need to resolve in a bipartisan way on March 14. All we need is three Republicans willing to draw a line in the sand,” he added.

In the Senate, there is a 60-vote threshold that applies to government funding legislation that will require Democratic cooperation with Republicans 53-47 majority.

“On the [confirmations] they don’t need us, but on legislation, particularly with the funding resolution, they do need us, and we will insist that there be certain changes that undo these bad things,” Schumer said.

The top Democratic leaders unveiled legislation they are calling “Stop the Steal” that aims to prevent “unlawful meddling in the Treasury Department’s payment systems.” However, the duo stressed that they were considering other avenues of action after it became clear that Musk is rapidly consolidating control over large portions of the federal government with President Donald Trump’s backing.

Schumer said they are attempting to fight back with a multipronged approach, which includes speaking out, litigation, oversight, and legislation, a process that has already been set in motion. 

“The roots of democracy are still deep, and when the public is really outraged by things, there is a response,” Schumer said, speaking to reporters at his fourth press conference of the week. “On tariffs, on funding fees, we believe the public is so energized by what they have seen on this Treasury action that there will be a similar strong pushback, and the president will feel that pushback and respond to it.”

Trump defended Musk, who is serving as an unpaid adviser, saying he has done “a great job,” speaking with reporters in the Oval Office.

“Elon Musk has done a great job. Look at all the fraud he has found in this USAID. It is a disaster, radical-left lunatics. They have things that no one would even believe,” Trump said.

Democrats are attempting to win the messaging war. For the second day in a row, they rallied with federal workers outside government office buildings. On Tuesday, they gathered in front of the U.S. Treasury Building at a “Nobody Elected Elon” rally, chanting “Elon Musk has got to go.” 

.@RepMaxineWaters in front of the Treasury at a rally against Elon Musk’s takeover of the federal government’s payment system: “We’ve got to tell Elon Musk, nobody elected your ass.” pic.twitter.com/UQ5gsIVXEp

— Samantha-Jo Roth (@SamanthaJoRoth) February 4, 2025

“We’ve got to tell Elon Musk, nobody elected your ass,” said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA).

Democrats are framing their fight as one that isn’t necessarily aimed at Trump himself but at his allies like Musk who they say are attempting to cut government spending to make room for Trump’s proposed tax cuts that will benefit the wealthy. They see this fight as an opportunity to regain ground with voters on economic issues, a major weakness for the party last year.

“We need to send a message to America, everyone has a stake in Elon Musk enriching himself, all of the self-dealing that marks Donald Trump’s presidency so far,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), speaking at the rally. “All of the freezing of money and funding, all of the hiring freezes, all of the firing of inspectors general, it’s all to pay for billionaire tax cuts.”

“It’s pretty clear we have to fight this in the courts. We have to fight this in the Congress, we have to fight this in the streets, we have to fight this all over America, and we need to make sure that the billionaires don’t take this country away from the working people of America. That’s what it’s all about,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), speaking at the rally surrounded by cheering federal workers. 

Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) on Tuesday urged the Government Accountability Office to open an investigation into how Musk’s employees were able to access the Treasury Department’s systems that make payments to people, including tax refunds, Medicare and Social Security benefits, and payments to federal contractors.

“GAO must investigate and determine who was granted access to these systems, why and how this access was granted, and the implications for the nation’s economic and national security,” Warren and Wyden wrote in their letter to the congressional whistleblower.

In a letter to Wyden on Tuesday, the Treasury told the senator, who serves on the Budget Committee, that the DOGE team official has “read-only access” and has not caused payments to be suspended or rerouted at the Fiscal Service Office.

After Democratic senators said they would put a “blanket hold” on Trump’s nominees for the State Department following a push to shut down USAID on Monday, some Democrats are taking it a step further and are considering delays on all Trump nominees as retaliation.

“We ought to be putting a hold on all nominees, and I am certain that we’re going to stop as much as we can, any of these nominees. We have a hold on all of them. We should continue that hold. I will put a hold on the Department of Justice nominees if necessary,” Blumenthal said, speaking to reporters earlier on Tuesday.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) repeated the threat at the rally on Tuesday night.

“We are wide awake to the fraud that is being perpetuated on this country, inside this building, and we are not going to stand for it. I don’t know about you, but I think the United States Senate should not vote for a single nominee that’s going to participate in this,” Murphy said as the crowd cheered.