Sen. Graham Receives Concessions After ‘Hold’ on Senate’s Funding Deal

The Senate—with a possible government shutdown looming—has crafted a deal to break a funding logjam between Republicans and Democrats, but ahead of the deal being clinched, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham demanded a guarantee of votes on two legislative priorities.

Graham, R-S.C., sought opportunities to vote on legislation to criminalize local officials disobeying federal immigration law, as well as legislation allowing senators and conservative organizations to sue the federal government for wiretapping them.

When the clock strikes midnight on Friday, the federal government’s discretionary spending authority for key agencies will expire, triggering a lapse in appropriations that could cause a government shutdown.

The Senate failed to muster support for a six-bill funding package Thursday, as all Democrats opposed ending the debate on the package, and several Republicans joined in to express their dissatisfaction with the process as well.

In order to get to a funding deal, senators came to an agreement with all members on an expedited process for passing five of the six spending bills, as well as a two-week funding extension for the Department of Homeland Security. This process will involve seven amendments votes.

The extension of DHS funding would buy time for further negotiations on immigration issues, which have been the major sticking point for Democrats.

With his “Arctic Frost” amendment, Graham is attempting to maintain parts of a provision that the House tried to gut in the package it sent to the Senate. 

The current provision, signed into law as part of a spending package in November, is meant to address the surveillance of the GOP senators in special counsel Jack Smith’s Arctic Frost investigation into alleged attempts to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election.

Specifically, the current law allows senators to sue the Department of Justice for at least $500,000 for each instance their data is seized or subpoenaed without notice. 

House members have slammed this as a conflict of interest for senators, who could potentially make millions of dollars off the legislation.

With his demands, Graham has led a one-man battle against the House to keep parts of this framework.

“To the House, I don’t appreciate what you did; to [Speaker] Mike Johnson, you jammed us,” Graham said to a group of reporters Friday. “You better never do that again, because what I’m going to do is introduce legislation, and I’m going to challenge you to take it up.”

Graham’s new version would, according to him, address House members’ concerns about senators profiting off the law, while also expanding protections to political organizations if their records are subpoenaed without notice in a noncriminal investigation.

He told reporters he cleared his modified version with the Senate ethics committee and that he wanted leadership to “find out a time when” it “fits into the amendment process.”

For his legislation to criminalize sanctuary city politicians’ noncompliance with immigration law, Graham told reporters he wanted it to be an amendment vote for the DHS bill.

“When I’m told I get those two things, I lift my hold,” he told reporters. “If I don’t, I’m going to be all night on the floor.”

After Graham’s speech, Senate Republican leadership sent out a “hotline” email requesting unanimous consent from all senators on a framework that would allow for seven amendments to be considered on the floor.

Leadership ultimately got unanimous consent on the framework, and Graham told reporters that his requests for votes were granted.

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