The House voted unanimously to repeal a Senate provision, added at the last minute to the short-term government funding bill that passed last week, to entitle certain senators to compensation if their data is accessed by the federal government.
The lower chamber voted on the repeal provision under suspension of the rules in the House on Wednesday night, meaning it could pass immediately as long as it received two-thirds of votes from the chamber. This method of passing a bill is often used for non-controversial bills that are expected to have a supermajority vote if brought to the floor.
The repeal had large support in the House after the provision was added at the last minute to allow senators to sue the federal government for surveilling them without their knowledge in response to a Biden-era investigation. The investigation, dubbed “Arctic Frost,” helped form the basis of one of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigations into President Donald Trump.
It was revealed in October that the investigation had obtained phone communications from eight Republican senators and one representative. Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Ron Johnson (R-WI), and Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) were among those tracked.
The Senate provision would allow the affected senators to sue the federal government for at least $500,000 each.
Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) slammed the provision on the House floor Wednesday during the allotted hour of debate on the legislation. Kiley was an open critic of Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) decision to keep the House in recess during the shutdown, going on to say that “to this day, there’s been no coherent rationale.” He called on the House to pass the bill and start “reasserting ourselves.”
“The Senate was so thoroughly convinced of the House’s irrelevance that they thought that they would literally insert a self-enrichment scheme into the legislation and get away with it,” Kiley said.
The provision has created a rift between Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), as Thune has adamantly defended the provision. The provision could have easily derailed the funding vehicle to reopen the government after the longest shutdown in history when House Republicans became aware of the provision just a day before.
Johnson openly expressed his distaste for the added measure last week, after it enraged some of his caucus, leading Rep. Greg Stuebe (R-FL) to vote against the bill.
“We had no idea that was dropped in at the last minute, and I did not appreciate that, nor did most of the House members,” Johnson said last week.
“I think that was way out of line,” Johnson continued. “I don’t think it was a smart thing to do. I don’t think it was the right thing to do, and the House is going to reverse it.”
The speaker later spoke to Thune and walked back some of his frustrations, while still planning on repealing the provision in the lower chamber.
“I was kind of frustrated by it — I said that publicly — but I have since talked to Leader Thune and the senators who were involved, and their motivation was pure,” Johnson said on Fox News Sunday.
Thune pushed back on the sentiment that the House did not know of the provision when talking to reporters on Wednesday.
“Well, there were a lot of folks who were aware, but yeah, some weren’t, and it was in the text that was shipped out, and we didn’t end up voting on the text until over 24 hours later,” Thune said.
Johnson said he did not ask for Thune to commit to bringing the stand-alone bill to the floor in the upper chamber, as Thune has remained noncommittal on whether the upper chamber will take up the repeal.
The majority leader had continuously defended the provision. He has claimed there is “legitimate criticism,” but defends the “substance” of the anti-surveillance language.
“I believe that you need to have some sort of accountability and consequence for that kind of weaponization.”
EVERY HOUSE REPUBLICAN, BAR ONE, VOTES TO RELEASE EPSTEIN FILES
Most senators investigated as part of the Arctic Frost operation have said they would not take the money or sue the federal government, aside from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
“The idea that I would settle this claim for $500K is silly,” Graham told reporters Wednesday. “I’m gonna make it hurt as much as I possibly can so nobody will do this again.”
David Sivak and Ramsey Touchberry contributed to this article.
