Trump’s deal to prevent a government shutdown faces hurdles in the Senate.
There is going to be a partial shutdown of the government at least into next week and probably longer. The House won’t be back in session until Monday, and even if the Senate votes on the five funding bills in the legislation before then, the 12 a.m. Saturday deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown will be missed.
The sixth funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security would be a temporary fix, funding DHS for another two weeks to give Congress time to come up with a compromise on ICE reforms.
A Trump-brokered deal with Democrats to fund five of the six departments was supposed to be voted on Thursday. Instead, it’s hanging by a thread because Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) objected to the unanimous consent motion to bring the five bills to the floor.
Trump agreed with the Democrats’ plan to separate the Homeland Security funding from the five other departments. However, to do that, all 100 senators have to agree. Graham objected to several aspects of the «minibus» (a play on the word «omnibus» referring to the usual designation of a multi-department funding bill), especially the section that «would repeal a prior provision allowing senators to sue if their phone records were sought or seized during former special counsel Jack Smith‘s investigation», according to The Hill. The phone records section had been included in the March deal to reopen the government. Graham wants it back.
