WASHINGTON, D.C. — After 43 days, the government is officially up and running after President Trump signed a short-term funding plan into law Wednesday night.
The president’s signature came a few hours after the House approved the Senate’s modified funding plan — but not without some controversy.
In addition to keeping the lights on through January, the funding package also includes three full-year appropriation bills for certain federal agencies as well as the legislative branch. But some provisions tacked on by the Senate for the legislative branch are prompting bipartisan backlash.
“I was very angry about it — I was. And a lot of my members called me and said, ‘Did you know about it?’ 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,” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., when responding to reporters Wednesday night about the controversial provision within the bill that ended the longest shutdown in U.S. history.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., reportedly directed staff to insert language allowing senators to sue for up to $500,000 if federal law enforcement obtains their electronic data without their knowledge.
The move was made after eight Republican senators learned their phone records were subpoenaed — without their knowledge — during Special Counsel Jack Smith’s January 6 investigation.
“I had a conversation with Leader Thune early this morning about it. I think he regretted the way it was done,” said Johnson.
House Republicans say they were blindsided by the move, including the lone House lawmaker targeted by Jack Smith’s “Arctic Frost” probe.
“Do I have the same — for whatever reasons — do we have the same privileges as the Senate does? Apparently we don’t,” said Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., whose phone records were requested in September 2023 as a part of the investigation. “If it was a serious problem for the senators, why wouldn’t it be a serious problem for members of the House?”
Rep. Kelly learned that he would not qualify for the same protections as senators just hours before the House took up the bill for a vote.
“I didn’t find out until last night, early this morning, that we weren’t being considered to be part of that,” said Kelly. “We’re looking into it. We talked to the Speaker’s office. We’re going to see what can happen and how we can go forward with it. I think we should fall under the same protections as the Senate does.”
The top House Judiciary Committee Democrat, Jamie Raskin D-Md., blasted the addition of the provision in a press release Monday, accusing Republican senators of seeking “a pirate’s treasure simply for having their call records turned over by their phone company in response to a lawful subpoena, subject to a lawful non-disclosure order signed by a federal judge, as part of a lawful criminal investigation.”
“The provision, which significantly is retroactive to 2022, allows ‘any United States Senator’ — not any citizen, mind you, and not even any Member of Congress, but ‘any Senator’ — to receive $500,000 from the taxpayers if the Department of Justice (DOJ) subpoenas their phone bill without giving them notice and then an extra $500,000 if DOJ seeks a lawful non-disclosure order from a federal judge. That’s a cool one million per senator,” Raskin’s statement reads. “This multi-million-dollar self-care package is designed to soothe the feelings and feather the nests of senators whom Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and their co-conspirators worked to enlist in their criminal efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election,” Raskin added.
Speaker Johnson also told reporters that the addition by Thune was “way out of line,” adding that the House will likely vote next week on legislation to overturn the lawsuit provision.
“We’ll probably pass it on suspension early next week and we’ll send it over to the Senate,” said Johnson. “The House is going to reverse, we’re going to repeal that, and I’m going to expect our colleagues in the Senate to do the same thing.”
At least three of the eight senators targeted in the January 6 investigation said Thursday they have no plans to pursue compensation.
