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Jan. 30, 2026 10:33-10:40 - CSPAN
06:47
Washington Journal Al Weaver

Al Weaver breaks down the House’s adjournment until Feb. 2, 2026, over midnight funding lapses for Defense, Labor, and Homeland Security, as a five-bill package—excluding DHS—secures $1.5T through Sept. 2026 via White House-Sun Democrat talks. Senator Lindsey Graham’s hold blocks the Arctic Frost provision repeal, risking delays, while House Republicans like Ana Paulina Luno push voter ID measures if negotiations restart. With Senate needing unanimous consent and Democratic holds possible, passage hinges on Trump’s reported persuasion calls to GOP members amid base pressure, including fallout from the Minneapolis shooting. The episode ends with live Senate vote coverage and Fed replacement updates, underscoring fiscal gridlock’s potential to reshape governance and security. [Automatically generated summary]

Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo Source
Participants
Appearances
m
mimi geerges
cspan 01:56
Clips
h
hakeem jeffries
rep/d 00:13
m
morgan griffith
rep/r 00:07
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Speaker Time Text
Senate Bill Update 00:05:34
unidentified
With liberty and justice for all.
morgan griffith ▲ ● ▼
Pursuant to clause 13 of Rule 1, the House stands adjourned until 9 a.m. on Monday, February 2nd, 2026.
unidentified
And the House is expected to return Monday for legislative business after some government agencies run out of money at midnight tonight, including the Departments of Defense, Labor, and Homeland Security, as the Senate has not yet approved a funding package.
Senators are currently in the process of considering a House pass bill, but changes are expected, which will require another vote in the House for final approval.
When members return, follow our live coverage here on C-SPAN.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼
We are joined by a Capitol Hill reporter to update us on what's happening there.
That's Al Weaver, staff writer at The Hill.
Al, welcome to the program.
unidentified
Thank you, Robin.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼
So explain to us this deal and what does it entail?
unidentified
Sure.
The White House and Sun Democrats came out lately or early evening yesterday, said that they have a deal to split off the DHS portion of the six-bill mini-bus.
So now basically it'll be a five-bill mini-bus that funds things like the Pentagon, labor, health and human services, those type of departments.
That'll be through the end of the fiscal year through the end of September, while peeling off this DHS portion.
The timeline for that now is a deal by Valentine's Day weekend, February 13th.
And that's going to be an uphill climb for legislators to try to nail down a deal on that.
But right now, things have kind of hit a snag.
Late last night, Senator Lindsey Graham made clear he has a hold on this bill over the Arctic Frost provision that is being repealed by House members.
It was a House-led effort.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼
And just remind us, that was the ability of lawmakers to sue the Justice Department if their phone records are taken.
unidentified
The phone records were seized in Jack Smith's probe, yes.
And he is one of the only ones that has said, yes, I would take money and I would put it in my bank account and that type of thing.
And it's been a bit of a lonely journey for Senator Graham.
But he's holding this up and he can do it for many days if he so chose, just like any other senator.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼
And is he willing to shut down the government over this?
unidentified
It remains.
He's making a stink about it now.
Whether he's willing to shut down part of the government, it remains unclear.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼
And tell us about who was involved in this negotiation.
I know that Senator Schumer was involved.
Did he meet directly with President Trump on this?
unidentified
It doesn't appear so.
I mean, I think they had some backtail negotiations.
I haven't seen, there's not been reporting that they have met face to face on this.
But those were the two main principles of this.
Leader Thun had made clear that the negotiation needed to happen between those two.
Trump can also bring along House Republicans eventually when this bill reaches the House in the coming days, because that's going to be a mountain to climb of its own.
So that's why it was those two.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼
Let's talk about the House because they are not in session today.
They were out all week.
Does that mean that the government is going to shut down over the weekend because they're not going to come back until Monday to vote?
unidentified
Yes, there will be a funding lapse over the weekend and potentially part of Monday, but it could extend into next week potentially.
There are some House members that have issues that they want attached onto this bill if things are reopened again.
You know, Ana Paulina Luno has the SAVE Act that she wants attached that forces you to show ID when you go to vote, for example.
There are provisions like that that members want if they are going to reopen this negotiation and potentially make it in their mind more left-leaning.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼
The Senate comes in at 11 a.m. today, so they are going to vote on this deal.
unidentified
They're hoping so.
They need clearance from all 100 senators to do so.
They need consent.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼
So besides Senator Graham, are there any senators that you're looking, you're going to be watching specifically?
unidentified
We're waiting to find out what the exact Democratic holds are right now.
There is at least one.
Leader Thune told us that last night.
Schumer was a little more coy.
He wanted to keep the focus on Graham and some Republican holds.
But right now, the main goal is trying to clear those and get a time agreement so we can get this thing passed today.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼
So we're not sure that the Democrats in the Senate are all united on this.
unidentified
Correct.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼
Are there specific people that you think might be holdouts?
unidentified
Not at the moment.
They're trying to keep those close to the vest and trying to hammer those out while they're able to.
But right now, the most acute one appears to be Senator Graham, who was none too pleased last night.
He made his voice known on that.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼
And going back to the House, as far as you can tell, are there enough votes to get this passed?
unidentified
Well, that's been the whole problem the whole time.
That was why Thune, for example, did not want this bill to have to try to even go back to the House.
He wanted to pass the bills as it was, the six-bill minibus, with DHS funding through the end of the year.
They tried making the argument that, look, this DHS bill does not, 80% of it does not deal with ICE.
It deals with things like FEMA, Secret Service, TSA.
TSA is going to get potentially caught up in this once again.
And that was why they tried to hammer that point home.
Obviously, Democrats have their own issues at stake with their voting base and the anger out there after the Minneapolis shooting last weekend.
But that was part of that reason.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼
Is there an understanding that President Trump is going to have to get involved to get the Hill Republicans all on board on this?
President Trump's Crucial Calls 00:01:12
unidentified
Yes.
Yes.
That is part of the calculus is that he will need to whip some of these members and just call them and tell them how he feels.
He's been no stranger to giving members calls lately on numerous subjects, and I think that's part of the thinking on this.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼
All right, well, we'll see how that all plays out.
The Senate comes in at 11 a.m.
And of course, you can watch that on C-SPAN too.
Al Weaver, staff writer at The Hill.
You can find his work at thehill.com.
Thanks so much for joining us.
unidentified
Thank you, Mimi.
mimi geerges ▲ ● ▼
Back to Washington Journal.
We are in open forum and looking forward to taking your calls.
But we will, before we do that, we're going to talk to a reporter about the news this morning that President Trump has named a replacement for Jerome Powell as head of the Federal Reserve, and that is Kevin Warsh.
We are joined by the President.
unidentified
We're going to leave this to continue our live coverage from Capitol Hill, taking out a remarks by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferson.
hakeem jeffries ▲ ● ▼
For the American people, to drive down the high cost of living, to fix our broken health care system, and to deliver a government that actually promotes the health, the safety, and the economic well-being of the American people.
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