Sen. Graham holds up spending deal to secure votes on sanctuary cities, Arctic Frost

Sen. Lindsey Graham is preventing the Senate from quickly advancing a spending package needed to keep the government funded, in an effort to secure votes on two of his priorities.

The South Carolina Republican has a “hold” on the package, which he says he will not drop until he secures commitments 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.

“I never do this, by the way,” Mr. Graham said of denying unanimous consent needed to advance the package to leverage his priorities.

“I’m doing it now because we’re off the rails — both parties, quite frankly.”

Part of the government is set to shut down at midnight Friday and will not reopen until the spending package can pass the Senate and the House, which is not scheduled to return to Washington until Monday.

Senate leaders and the White House agreed to a bipartisan deal on Thursday that would allow most of the outstanding fiscal 2026 spending bills to advance, except for the Department of Homeland Security bill.

DHS would instead be funded through a two-week stopgap measure designed to give lawmakers time to negotiate restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Trump administration’s deportation force to prevent the type of violence that has taken place in Minneapolis.

President Trump said on social media that he did not want to see “another long and damaging government shutdown” because it would slow the economic growth his policies are spurring.

“Republicans and Democrats in Congress have come together to get the vast majority of the Government funded until September, while at the same time providing an extension to the Department of Homeland Security (including the very important Coast Guard, which we are expanding and rebuilding like never before),” he said. “Hopefully, both Republicans and Democrats will give a very much needed Bipartisan ’YES’ Vote.”

The Senate had hoped to pass the altered package on Thursday night, but that required unanimous consent from all 100 senators. Some senators, including Mr. Graham, declined to sign off and put holds on the package to secure concessions.

Mr. Graham is not the only senator using his leverage, but he has been the most vocal. Negotiations on holds usually take place behind closed doors but Mr. Graham took to the Senate floor Friday for a half-hour speech airing his demands and grievances.

The senator referenced 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 is justified because his demand for a vote on 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 told reporters he is not demanding the bill get a vote as part of the current funding package. He wants it to be offered as an amendment to whatever full-year DHS funding deal lawmakers come up with in the next two weeks.

Teeing up amendments requires 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 is also demanding 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.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican, 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 [former special counsel] Jack Smith.”