What Lindsey Graham wants to keep the government out of a shutdown

Lindsey Graham is done with the government shutdown “fiasco.”

South Carolina’s senior senator said Thursday he wouldn’t support another 30-day short-term funding plan, increasing the possibility of the federal government shutting its doors after midnight on Friday.

“I am not going to support continuing this fiasco for 30 more days by voting for a continuing resolution,” Graham said in a statement on Thursday.

The House of Representatives passed such a plan later in the day, a little more than 24 hours before the government’s spending authority runs out.

Graham has two pre-conditions for supporting a government funding measure in the Senate, where Republicans have a one-vote majority and will need support from at least nine Democrats to overcome a filibuster.

“We need additional funding for our military – which is desperately in need of an infusion,” Graham said. “We also need some direction about the path forward for 800,000 DACA recipients who know no home other than the United States.”

Graham has been critical of the effect a series of short-term funding bills have had on U.S. armed forces, arguing it blunts the Pentagon’s ability to plan long-term.

Graham has also been at the center of a controversy over the plan to fix DACA, or the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that President Donald Trump has said he plans to end by March.

Graham was part of a bipartisan group of lawmakers who presented an immigration deal to Trump in the Oval Office, only to have the president reject it because he said the U.S. should not accept immigrants from “shithole countries.” Graham later said any deal would be impossible to reach without a “reliable partner” in the White House.

Thousands of federal employees in South Carolina would be forced to stay home Monday without a government spending deal in place. Attractions like Congaree National Park and Fort Sumter would also turn away visitors this weekend without a spending deal.

This story was originally published January 19, 2018 at 7:43 AM with the headline "What Lindsey Graham wants to keep the government out of a shutdown."