Partial Shutdown Likely Tonight Despite Senate Deal

The Senate will vote Friday on a funding deal to keep federal agencies open, with just hours before a partial government shutdown is expected to begin.

The vote schedule was set after South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said he would drop his hold on the funding legislation, which had blocked the Senate from quickly considering the package.

Graham lifted the hold after getting assurances from the Senate Majority John Thune, R-S.D., that he would support Graham’s efforts to hold future votes on two separate issues.

Senators will vote on a series of amendments to the package of funding bills. That will be followed by a final vote to pass it.

Even if the deal passes, a short shutdown is all but certain because the House of Representatives isn’t scheduled to return to Washington until Monday.

Both chambers are required to vote to approve the spending bills before the package goes to President Donald Trump to sign.

Without final congressional approval of the deal, a partial shutdown of federal operations will begin at 12:01 a.m. ET Saturday.

Graham said on the Senate floor earlier Friday that he would not lift his hold unless he was “guaranteed a vote” on his bill to criminalize so-called sanctuary city policies.

Graham wants to impose criminal penalties on state and local officials “who willfully interfere with the enforcement of federal immigration laws.”

The senator also demanded a vote on an amendment to address the so-called Arctic Frost investigation by then-special counsel Jack Smith. That amendment would require officials to notify senators if their phone records are obtained in a criminal investigation.

The House last week included language in the spending package to repeal a law that would have allowed senators to sue for up to $500,000 if their phone records were obtained during Arctic Frost. Graham criticized House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., for the move.

In a statement Friday afternoon, Graham said that Thune supports his efforts to bring the sanctuary cities bill to a vote.

Thune “also supports, at a time to be determined, a vote on creating the ability for groups and private citizens, not members of Congress, that may have been harmed by Jack Smith and the Biden DOJ [Department of Justice] to have their day in court,” Graham said in the statement.

As a result, “I will lift my hold and vote for the package,” Graham said.

Trump, in a Truth Social post on Thursday, encouraged lawmakers to support the deal that would fund most of the federal government through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

Senate leaders had planned a vote on the agreement for Thursday night, but Graham’s hold scuttled that effort.

The agreement would strip out funding for the Department of Homeland Security and pass five other bills to appropriate money for government agencies.

The deal calls for DHS, which has been the target of scathing criticism by Democrats over its immigration enforcement actions in Minnesota, to be temporarily funded by a stopgap measure, with the question of long-term funding to be revisited later.