Trump’s deal to prevent a government shutdown faces hurdles in the Senate.<\/b>
\nThere 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\u2018s investigation», according to The Hill. The phone records section had been included in the March deal to reopen the government. Graham wants it back.
\u201cI\u2019m not going to ignore what happened. If you were abused, you think you were abused, your phone records were illegally seized, you should have your day in court,\u201d he said. \u201cEvery senator should want to make sure this never happens again.\u201d
Graham explained that dozens of private groups were prevented from suing Smith, not just senators. It was an important principle that needed to be upheld.
Trump took to Truth Social to demonstrate his unqualified support for the deal.
But Democratic leaders are still in negotiations with the White House over exactly what policy changes they want signed into law in return for their support for a long-term bill. Though Republicans have signaled they are open to some of the ideas Democrats have proposed, including requiring independent investigations, some in the GOP are raising warning flags about a fight to come.
Graham told reporters Thursday that while he was \u201cwilling to entertain some reforms \u2026 the cancer that we\u2019re dealing with is sanctuary-city policy.\u201d He wants a vote on legislation cracking down on those jurisdictions that don\u2019t comply with federal immigration laws, an idea Trump also backed this month.
Republicans are already bracing for the possibility of another weeks-long stopgap for DHS if a deal isn\u2019t reached by mid-February. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) went further, predicting that after the two-week stopgap \u201cpart of the government is just going to stay shut down.\u201d
\u201cTomorrow\u2019s another day, and hopefully people will be in a spirit to try to get this done,\u201d Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said as he left the Capitol Thursday night. \u201cHopefully by sometime tomorrow, we\u2019ll be in a better spot.\u201d
Even if the Senate were to pass the five funding bills and the DHS temporary fix, the whole minibus package faces an uncertain future in the House. Many Republicans are upset about Democrats using the prospect of ICE reforms as leverage in the budget fight.
For Democrats, all eyes will be on the House, which means plenty of opportunity to bash Trump and the GOP and weigh in on ICE «excesses.»
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) asserted that the House plans to move forward with the agreed-upon legislation.
\u201cBut the House is going to do its job. We want to get the government funded, as does the president, so respect whatever he was able to negotiate there, and we\u2019ll deal with it,\u201d Johnson told The Hill\u2019s Judy Kurtz at the premiere of the film \u201cMelania\u201d at the Kennedy Center last night.
The deal could fall apart very easily if Graham starts demanding changes unacceptable to Democrats. Thune is trying to find a way to get Graham to «yes», but it’s proving to be very difficult.
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