The U.S. government is on track to begin at least a brief partial shutdown early Saturday morning after a planned Senate vote on a funding deal to keep federal agencies open stalled.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told reporters late Thursday, “This is a bad deal,” as he went into the office of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., according to MS Now.
Graham confirmed he has a so-called hold on the funding package, which effectively blocks it from quick Senate consideration.
Even if the Senate votes on that deal Friday, at least a short shutdown is all but certain because the House of Representatives isn’t scheduled to return to Washington until Monday. Both chambers would be required to vote to approve the spending bills before the package goes to President Donald Trump to sign.
Without a funding deal, a partial shutdown of federal operations will begin at 12:01 a.m. ET Saturday.
Trump on Thursday in a Truth Social post 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 planned a vote on the agreement for Thursday night, but it was scuttled.
The agreement would strip out funding for the Department of Homeland Security and pass five other bills to appropriate money for government agencies.
DHS, which has been the target of scathing criticism by Democrats over its aggressive immigration enforcement actions in Minnesota, would be temporarily funded by a stopgap measure under the agreement with longer-term funding being revisited later.
A Republican Senate aide told MS Now that Graham’s hold on the deal stems from a provision passed by the House that stripped legislative language that would have allowed senators to sue for up to $500,000 if their phone records were obtained during the so-called Arctic Frost investigation by then-special counsel Jack Smith.
