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. The provision did not apply to House members. The lower chamber stuck in the repeal item in the DHS funding bill, and it is slated to remain in the two-week continuing resolution to keep the department`s lights on until Feb. 13.

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