When the Senate passed the continuing resolution (CR) that reopened the government, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) agreed to bury within it a provision related to the controversial Arctic Frost probe.
The measure would allow senators who had been surveilled without their knowledge to sue the government for as much as $500,000.
The House just voted to repeal the measure, kicking it back to the Senate, which now faces a sticky dilemma.
During the Arctic Frost investigation, the phones of Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), Eric Schmitt (R-MO), Ashley Moody (R-FL), and Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) were all being surveilled by then-special counsel Jack Smith and his investigative team.
That information recently came to light, and Republicans were furious over it.
Instead of going after Smith, however, they decided to sneak a provision in the CR that would allow them to sue the federal government for as much as $500,000.
Mind you, that money would come from American taxpayers.
When asked about the measure, Thune tried to justify it by saying that there had to be accountability of some sort for such a gross abuse of government.
He stated, "I think I take that as a legitimate criticism in terms of the process, but I think, on the substance, I believe that you need to have some sort of accountability and consequence for that kind of weaponization against a co-equal branch of the government.”
Keep in mind, Schumer signed off on the measure's inclusion as well, stating, "Look, the bottom line is Thune wanted the provision, and we wanted to make sure that at least Democratic senators were protected from [Attorney General Pam] Bondi and others who might go after them.”
Schumer continued, “So, we made it go prospective, not just retroactive, but I'd be for repealing all the provision, all of it. And I hope that happens."
The House just put a repeal of the measure on the floor, and it passed 426-0, so now it will head back to the Senate, where it will hopefully pass as well.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK) stated, "It had been added in the Senate without our knowledge. It was a real trust factor … I mean, all of a sudden, this pops up in the bill, and we're confronted with either: leave this in here, or we pull it out, we have to go to conference, and the government doesn't get reopened."
This just proves everything I have always said about legislation rarely being read by the very people who are voting on it.
I don’t want to hear about the “trust” factor here. Before you pass it, you read it in full, so you know what you are approving. This, to me, is unforgivable on both ends of the spectrum. I think it is despicable that Thune thought it was okay to make the American taxpayer pony up for the mistakes of an overreaching federal government. I think it is horrific that we regularly have members of Congress voting for legislation without having fully read it. The government, my friends, is badly broken.
