The Senate is on track to pass a spending package Friday ahead of a midnight funding deadline, after Sen. Lindsey Graham secured GOP leaders’ backing for votes on two of his priorities.
Part of the government will briefly shut down until the House, which is not scheduled to return to Washington until Monday, passes it too.
Mr. Graham, South Carolina Republican, lifted his “hold” on the package Friday in exchange for future votes on ending sanctuary city policies and providing a legal remedy for conservatives whose rights were violated as part of the Biden-era Arctic Frost investigation.
Mr. Graham said in a statement that Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican, “supports” holding the votes.
“I very much appreciate Leader Thune going to bat for the cause of ending the lawlessness and chaos created by sanctuary city policies, and allowing groups and private citizens harmed by [former special counsel] Jack Smith to have their day in court,” Mr. Graham said.
He told The Washington Times that Democrats have not yet agreed to cooperate in teeing up the votes.
On the sanctuary cities measure in particular, Mr. Graham said, “If Democrats oppose me having that vote, it’ll be the dumbest political thing they’ve ever done, which is saying a lot.”
The senator’s brief blockade prevented the Senate from voting on the spending package Thursday night after the chamber’s party leaders and the White House agreed to a bipartisan deal to advance most of the outstanding fiscal 2026 spending bills.
The only exception is the Department of Homeland Security bill, which will be funded through a two-week stopgap measure.
That is designed to give lawmakers time to negotiate restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Trump administration’s deportation force that Democrats say have engaged in “thuggery” and violated constitutional rights.
President Trump said he signed off on the deal because he does not want to see “another long and damaging government shutdown” that could slow economic growth.
“Hopefully, both Republicans and Democrats will give a very much needed Bipartisan ’YES’ Vote,” he said on social media Thursday evening after the agreement came together.
The Senate on Friday afternoon began voting on a series of amendments to the spending package designed to appease other senators who also placed holds on the measure to bring attention to their priorities.
The amendments are expected to fail, except for the one that will substitute the full-year DHS funding bill with the two-week stopgap.
Mr. Graham said earlier in the day that he has never previously withheld his consent to advance appropriations bills.
“I’m doing it now because we’re off the rails – both parties, quite frankly,” he said in a half-hour floor speech airing his demands and grievances.
The senator took a swipe at some of his conservative GOP colleagues who regularly hold up appropriations bills to push for spending constraints “that nobody can deliver” and “to make points that are not good for the Republican Party or the country.”
“Politically, you’re dumb as a rock,” Mr. Graham said. “I’m not going to mention you. You know who you are. But you probably don’t if you’re that dumb.”
He said his hold was justified because his goal of ending sanctuary cities policies is about addressing the “root cause” of the immigration enforcement chaos that is playing out in Minneapolis and around the country.
“How are you ever going to fix illegal immigration if there are pockets of the country where if an illegal immigrant can get there, they’re home free?” Mr. Graham said.
He said the 12 states with sanctuary city policies that ignore federal immigration laws are “inciting chaos and putting people’s lives at risk,” and that those local officials “should literally go to jail” for not enforcing the law.
Mr. Graham’s bill would make it illegal for state and local officials to impede federal immigration enforcement, and impose criminal penalties if illegal immigrants they release from custody go on to kill or seriously injure someone.
The senator wants to offer the measure as an amendment to whatever full-year DHS funding deal lawmakers come up with in the next two weeks.
Teeing up that amendment vote will require unanimous consent, meaning Democrats would have to sign off.
“I need to have a seat at the table, not an outcome. I’m not insisting you adopt sanctuary city changes,” Mr. Graham said to his colleagues. “I’m insisting I have a vote.”
Separate from the DHS bill, Mr. Graham also demanded a vote in a “reasonable” time frame on a bill to provide an adjudication process for conservatives whose phone records were spied on as part of the Arctic Frost probe.
Mr. Graham was one of several GOP lawmakers whose records were accessed without his knowledge.
The House tucked a provision into the DHS funding bill to repeal a previously enacted law drafted by Senate leaders to allow impacted senators to sue the government for at least $500,000 in damages.
Mr. Graham has said he planned to sue, but has insisted it is not about the money. He has wanted to expand the private right of action beyond senators to include hundreds of conservative individuals and groups who were also targeted in the probe.
Mr. Thune, who helped draft the original provision, had tried to ease House lawmakers’ concerns by clarifying that Senate ethics rules would not allow senators to pocket the damages, and that any awards would go to the U.S. Treasury.
The provision the House added to the spending package to repeal the law not only wipes away senators’ ability to sue, but also a requirement that phone companies notify senators if the executive branch is trying to access their records.
Mr. Graham said the House “overreacted.”
The senator took particular issue with Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, for jamming the repeal into the spending deal without bicameral talks. Mr. Johnson also complained about being blindsided when the Senate did not tell the House it was adding the phone provisions to an earlier spending deal.
“We’ll fix the $500,000. Count me in,” Mr. Graham said. “But you took the notification out. I’m not going to give up on that. That’s a fishing expedition we should all be against.”
He said he and Michigan Democratic Sen. Gary Peters are “close to finding a bipartisan solution” to protect the Senate in the future. He wants a guaranteed vote on that, as well as language to provide a private right of action for “the 430 Republican groups that may have been abused by Jack Smith.”
Mr. Graham said in his statement that Mr. Thune “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 to have their day in court.”
