Congress
Lindsey Graham signals path to defuse funding threat
Sen. Lindsey Graham laid out a path to pass a funding deal Friday, potentially defusing a standoff that threatens to extend a potential government shutdown set to begin within hours.
Senate Republican leaders believe they can move forward with approval of the spending agreement notched by President Donald Trump and Senate Democrats by offering votes on amendments demanded by the South Carolina Republican — one related to cities that don’t comply with federal immigration laws and two changes related to the defunct investigation into the 2020 election led by former special counsel Jack Smith.
Giving Graham those amendment votes would require sign-on from all 99 of his colleagues.
“I’m asking this body to guarantee me that vote, and we move forward,” Graham said about his sanctuary cities proposal.
Addressing the Smith language, which would have allowed senators to sue for up to $500,000 per incident in damages, Graham said he wants the Senate to vote on substitute language expanding who can sue if their phone records are seized and requiring notification when senators are impacted.
“We’ll fix the $500,000 — count me in — but you took the notification out,” Graham said. “I am demanding a vote on the floor of the United States Senate.”
The apparent pathway to Senate passage represents a reversal from Thursday night, when the chamber appeared stuck after Graham railed against the spending bill as a “bad deal” and vowed to block its speedy approval.
While there were multiple resolved sticking points as of Thursday night, Graham’s objections were widely viewed as the main obstacle.
Graham’s rebellion is tied to the spending legislation including a House-passed provision undoing a law allowing senators to receive cash payouts if they had their phone records seized by Smith’s investigation.
The provision’s inclusion in the Senate funding agreement was first reported by POLITICO.
Graham, who was among the senators who had records subpoenaed, railed against the provision on Thursday night — though he argued his interest was not personal.
“It’s not about me — 190 private groups had their phone records messed with. I want notification,” Graham said.
Congress
Here’s what federal programs are headed for a (possibly brief) shutdown
Government funding is set to lapse at midnight Friday for the military and many domestic programs, but cash will continue to flow at a slew of federal agencies Congress already funded.
House leaders are aiming to send a funding package to President Donald Trump Monday, days after the Senate passed the legislation just before the deadline to avert a partial shutdown.
The effect on most federal programs is expected to be minor, and employees who are furloughed would miss just one day of work if the House acts on schedule — which is not assured.
This time, many of the services that have the greatest public impact when shuttered — like farm loans, SNAP food assistance to low-income households and upkeep at national parks — will continue. That’s because Congress already funded some agencies in November and earlier this month, including the departments of Energy, Commerce, Justice, Agriculture, Interior and Veterans Affairs, as well as military construction projects, the EPA, congressional operations, the FDA and federal science programs.
Still, the spending package congressional leaders are trying to clear for Trump’s signature next week contains the vast majority of the funding Congress approves each year to run federal programs, including $839 billion for the military.
Besides the Pentagon, funding will lapse for several major nondefense agencies beginning early Saturday morning.
That includes federal transportation, labor, housing, education and health programs, along with the IRS, independent trade agencies and foreign aid. The departments of Homeland Security, State and Treasury will also be hit by the shutdown.
Congress
Senate passes $1.2T government funding deal — but a brief shutdown is certain
The Senate passed a compromise spending package Friday, clearing a path for Congress to avert a lengthy government shutdown.
The 71-29 vote came a day after Senate Democrats and President Donald Trump struck a deal to attach two weeks of Homeland Security funding to five spending bills that will fund the Pentagon, State Department and many other agencies until Sept. 30.
The Senate’s vote won’t avert a partial shutdown that will start early Saturday morning since House lawmakers are out of town and not scheduled to return until Monday.
During a private call with House Republicans Friday, Speaker Mike Johnson said the likeliest route to House passage would be bringing the package up under a fast-track process Monday evening. That would require a two-thirds majority — and a significant number of Democratic votes.
The $1.2 trillion package could face challenges in the House, especially from conservative hard-liners who have said they would vote against any Senate changes to what the House already passed. Many House Democrats are also wary of stopgap funding for DHS, which would keep ICE and Border Patrol funded at current levels without immediate new restrictions.
If the Trump-blessed deal ultimately gets signed into law, Congress will have approved more than 95 percent of federal funding — leaving only a full-year DHS bill on its to-do list. Congress has already funded several agencies, including the departments of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs and Justice.
“These are fiscally responsible bills that reflect months of hard work and deliberation from members on both parties and both sides of the Capitol,” Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) said before the final vote.
The Office of Management and Budget has issued shutdown guidance for agencies not already funded, which include furloughs of some personnel.
Republicans agreeing to strip out the full-year DHS bill and replace it with a two-week patch is a major win for Democrats. They quickly unified behind a demand to split off and renegotiate immigration enforcement funding after federal agents deployed to Minnesota fatally shot 37-year-old U.S. citizen Alex Pretti last week.
But Democrats will still need to negotiate with the White House and congressional Republicans about what, if any, policy changes they are willing to codify into law as part of a long-term bill. Republicans are open to some changes, including requiring independent investigations. But they’ve already dismissed some of Democrats’ main demands, including requiring judicial warrants for immigration arrests.
“If Republicans are serious about the very reasonable demands Democrats have put forward on ICE, then there is no good reason we can’t come together very quickly to produce legislation. It should take less than two weeks,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Friday.
Republicans have demands of their own, and many believe the most likely outcome is that another DHS patch will be needed.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), for instance, wants a future vote on legislation barring federal funding for cities that don’t comply with federal immigration laws. Other Republicans and the White House have pointed to it as a key issue in the upcoming negotiations.
“I am demanding that my solution to fixing sanctuary cities at least have a vote. You’re going to put ideas on the floor to make ICE better? I want to put an idea on the floor to get to the root cause of the problem,” Graham said.
The Senate vote caps off a days-long sprint to avoid a second lengthy shutdown in the span of four months. Senate Democrats and Trump said Thursday they had a deal, only for it to run into a snag when Graham delayed a quick vote as he fumed over a provision in the bill, first reported by POLITICO, related to former special counsel Jack Smith’s now-defunct investigation targeting Trump.
Senate leaders ultimately got the agreement back on track Friday afternoon by offering votes on seven changes to the bill, all of which failed. The Senate defeated proposals to cut refugee assistance, strip out all earmarks from the package and redirect funding for ICE to Medicaid, among others.
Graham raged against the House’s move to overturn a law passed last year allowing senators to sue for up to $500,000 per incident if their data had been used in former special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the 2020 election. But he backed off his threats to hold up the bill after announcing that leaders had agreed to support a future vote on the matter.
“You jammed me,” Graham said on the floor Friday. “Speaker Johnson, I won’t forget this.”
Meredith Lee Hill and Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.
Congress
House GOP leaders eye bipartisan path for spending package
Speaker Mike Johnson told House Republicans on a private call Friday night he intends to hold a vote on a sprawling funding package by Monday evening. Leaders are likely to pursue a bipartisan path for passage, he said, rather than relying on the thin GOP majority to approve it.
The planned vote would end a partial government shutdown after more than two days. The Senate is on track to pass the package Friday night, just ahead of a midnight shutdown deadline, but the House has been in recess this week and is not scheduled to reconvene until Monday.
The vote would happen Monday by 6:30 p.m., Johnson said, according to four people granted anonymity to describe his private remarks. He added he intended to pass it however he could, the people said, but indicated the likeliest route would be bringing it up under suspension of the rules, a fast-track process requires a two-thirds majority — and hence a significant chunk of Democratic votes.
The suspension path would avoid a potentially tricky party-line procedural vote, with many conservative hard-liners raising objections to reopening a Homeland Security funding deal — as the Senate bill would do. The House Rules Committee had planned to meet Sunday night and hasn’t yet notified members those plans had changed, but Republicans say it that is likely.
House Democrats have been wary of providing any support for the Department of Homeland Security amid President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement surge, and it could be difficult for party leaders to summon the scores of votes needed to pass the deal, which was negotiated between Senate Democrats and the White House.
The agreement splits off DHS funding from the larger package but still funds the department for two more weeks, allowing time for negotiations on new enforcement restrictions.
A spokesperson for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries did not respond to a request for comment on the possibility that Democratic votes will be needed to pass the bill. The caucus is likely to be sharply divided on the question, many Democrats say privately.
Jeffries’ has been publicly aligned with Senate Democratic leaders on a push for stronger warrant requirements, banning agents from wearing masks and requiring them to use body cameras. He said Thursday if the department were on a “path” to change, it would factor into Democrats’ deliberations.
Johnson on the call emphasized that Trump supports the deal, and the House needs to pass it. GOP leaders also pressed members to get into Washington as soon as Sunday night.
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