Senate shutdown deal stalls over Graham objection

thehill ^ | Jan 29 | thehill

[RandFan]

The Senate’s race to avert a shutdown hit the skids late Thursday night as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) placed a hold on the government funding package, forcing leaders to punt the vote.

Senators had been hoping to vote on the so-called minibus after leaders struck a deal earlier in the day and President Trump endorsed it. Under the agreement, the Senate was set to vote on a package of five full-year funding bills and a stopgap measure funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for two weeks.

But as lawmakers awaited word on the vote late Thursday, a fired-up Graham emerged from Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s (R-S.D.) office and declared, “We’re not voting tonight.”

Graham pointed to language in the bill that would repeal a provision allowing senators to sue if their phone records were collected as part of former special counsel Jack Smith’s probe.

“What senator wouldn’t want notification that they’re looking at your phone?” he said.

“I fixed the problem that people had. I’m 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,” Graham said. “Every senator should want to make sure this never happens again.”

The so-called Arctic Frost provision, championed by Graham, passed as part of the bill to end the historic government shutdown last year — and prompted anger in the House.

[RandFan]

Out of all the things he could object over its this?

Strange one.... ?

[jimtorr]

It’s as good as anything to object to, to stop a vote on this bad funding crap. What this bill if aiming for, is to stop funding for DHS.

[HYPOCRACY]

How about every American? Why do Senators get their own special law?

[Candor7]

Even a broken clock like Graham is right twice a day.

[RandFan]

He’s after something else I suspect

[Texas Eagle]

How long is this stupid budget supposed to last? Whatever happened to the appropriations process where government was funded for an entire year? These 3 month funding budgets are bullshit.

[pierrem15]

and President Trump endorsed it.

¿Qué?

[TigersEye]

... a fired-up Graham emerged from Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s (R-S.D.) office and declared, “We’re not voting tonight.”

I can't stand Linseed but this sounds like a plan was agreed upon in Thune's office.

[ProgressingAmerica]

It isn’t a budget.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

No kidding!!

This pisses me off!

"...a package of five full-year funding bills and a stopgap measure funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for two weeks..

I can't believe President Trump signed onto that! How disappointing.

[Lockbox]

Well, now someone knows whom he was really calling late at night…..

[Right_Wing_Madman]

The South Carolina Republican also signaled that he had an issue with the lack of full-year Homeland Security funds.

Here is the real issue, and credit Graham for agreeing to be the point man.

Trump and most GOP senators gave Democrats everything they wanted in this spending bill: full funding for Defense, Transportation, HHS, HUD, and Education until September 30 and only 2 weeks of funding for DHS. Basically, they handed all leverage to Democrats for future DHS funding. But Graham (and probably a few others) objected to this in Thune's office.

[Paladin2]

How can we Gitmo’ Linda?

[TigersEye]

Sounds good. Credit where credit is due.

[Right_Wing_Madman]

Sounds good.

Actually, it sounds terrible. Trump was willing to concede half of the federal budget in exchange for only two weeks of DHS funding.

This gives Democrats tremendous leverage when DHS funding is debated in February. To fund DHS for the remainder of the year, Democrats will insist on a provision that ICE cannot arrest a single illegal alien (criminal or otherwise) without a warrant (amnesty through judicial backlog) and they'll be able to carry out this demand for much longer if half of the budget is already settled for the year.

[TigersEye]

Assuming Trump wasn’t talking to Thune, Graham and other Senators about how to handle this.

[VanShuyten]

If the Senate agrees with this 5+1 bill, it will have to go back to the House, since that isn’t what the House passed.

[Right_Wing_Madman]

Assuming Trump wasn’t talking to Thune, Graham and other Senators about how to handle this.

Perhaps Trump realized he shouldn't have green-lighted this bad strategy. My point is that it never should have reached this point.

Democrats have shut down government twice in the past year and both times they folded like a cheap suits during negotiations, because Democrats and their constituents depend on the cash flow from DC more than Republicans and their constituents.

[Political Junkie Too]

What this bill if aiming for, is to stop funding for DHS.

DHS is funded -- at least ICE is funded for several years. This would have stopped Coast Guard, FEMA, TSA, and Secret Service funding, but not ICE.

Calling it a bill to defund ICE is a Trojan Horse. What they really want is backdoor amnesty for illegal aliens by eliminating the immigration judge warrants for deportation. Instead, they want a federal district court judge to issue warrants now.

Currently, illegal aliens held in state prisons or jails were arrested, tried, and convicted for state crimes. By forcing federal court warrants instead of immigration court warrants, those warrants wouldn't apply to most incarcerated illegal aliens because they haven't been convicted of federal crimes, only state crimes that are out of reach of federal warrants.

That's the game that's being played here.

-PJ

[fella]

Omnibus bills of any size should be illegal.

They are not what the Founders wanted.

Single issue bills, up or down.