Washington managed to do what it does best late Thursday night, snatch defeat from the jaws of a deal. The Senate technically had an agreement to keep the government funded, but GOP anger over earmarks, border policy, and how the Department of Homeland Security has been handled blew the whole thing apart, setting the stage for a partial shutdown this weekend.
The framework itself was simple enough. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and President Trump agreed to pull the DHS funding bill out of a larger six bill package and instead keep DHS running on a two week continuing resolution. The idea was to buy time while lawmakers argued over border enforcement and other sticking points. The White House backed it. Democrats were fine with it. That still was not enough, because the House also has to sign off, and the clock basically ran out.
Thursday night turned into a marathon of Senate procedural warfare. Republicans spent hours knocking down holds and amendments, trying to clear the way. By the end of it all, only one senator was standing in the way, and he was not in a mood to compromise.
That senator was Lindsey Graham.
Walking into Majority Leader John Thune’s office late Thursday, Graham summed up the deal in two words, “bad deal.” His main issue was how Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were being treated in the negotiations and the underlying bill.
ICE agents, Graham said, “are not infallible, but I appreciate what they’re doing. I’ve never been more offended than I am right now by what’s being said about these folks.” In plain English, he was not going to greenlight a bill that throws federal immigration agents under the bus to make Democrats happy.
Graham was not alone. Earlier Thursday afternoon, the original funding package failed a key procedural vote after seven Republicans joined Democrats to block it. The conference was already split, and the revised deal did nothing to heal that divide. Once President Trump publicly endorsed the new plan, leadership scrambled to pull skeptics back into line. That effort fizzled fast.
Thune tried to sound optimistic on his way out of the Capitol, telling reporters, “Tomorrow’s another day.” That is usually Washington code for, we are out of options tonight.
Adding fuel to the fire was a provision in the DHS bill repealing a controversial measure tied to former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Arctic Frost investigation. That provision allowed senators whose phone records were subpoenaed to sue for up to $500,000 per violation. Graham has been one of its strongest defenders and has blocked repeal attempts before.
Graham insisted his hold was not about personal gain, pointing to an agreement with the Senate Ethics Committee that prevents him from profiting. “We can find out a way forward, but not this way,” he said.
As lawmakers filed out late Thursday, the mood was sour and the outcome obvious. The shutdown everyone claimed they wanted to avoid was now staring them in the face, courtesy of a Senate that could agree on almost everything except actually getting the job done.
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