The House of Representatives has overwhelmingly voted to repeal a controversial provision from the government shutdown bill that would have allowed Republican senators to sue the federal government over their phone records seized by former special counsel Jack Smith. The measure, included in the recently passed bill to end the 43-day government shutdown, faced strong opposition from both parties, highlighting deepening tensions between the House and Senate.
Despite supporters arguing the provision was necessary to provide senators with recourse against the executive branch overstepping its constitutional bounds, the last-minute inclusion of the measure outraged members from both sides of the aisle. The repeal was passed 426 to 0, with 210 Democrats and 216 Republicans in the tally, signaling a rare bipartisan agreement on the issue.
The so-called ‘Requiring Senate Notification for Senate Data’ provision would have allowed targeted senators to pursue up to $500,000 in damages against the government. However, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., who was instrumental in negotiating the funding deal to end the shutdown, expressed concern that the provision could have derailed the final vote. ‘It had been added in the Senate without our knowledge,’ Cole said, ‘and we were confronted with either leave it in or pull it out and risk not reopening the government.’
The measure was added to the bill by Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., at the request of GOP senators, including Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz. The inclusion of the provision sparked a major point of contention during the House Rules Committee’s deliberations over the legislation. Many House Republicans, including Reps. Chip Roy, Austin Scott, and Morgan Griffith, voiced frustration over the measure but emphasized that ending the government shutdown took priority.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., was caught off guard by the provision’s inclusion, stating that he had no prior notice of the measure. ‘I was frustrated, as my colleagues are, and I thought it was untimely and inappropriate,’ he told reporters. While Republicans generally supported the measure’s intent to hold the executive branch accountable, they argued that its scope was too narrow, and it did not extend to other Americans, including the former president.
Despite the controversy, some Senate Republicans, including Graham and Cruz, have refused to back down, with Graham stating he would pursue legal action against the government over the seizure of his records. Senator Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., defended the provision, arguing it was necessary to ensure that Congress could defend its own power when the DOJ went too far. Thune echoed this sentiment, calling the measure an essential protection for the Senate and its members in the future.
While the House majority has largely agreed to repeal the measure, the issue has further exposed the deepening divides between the House and Senate, raising questions about how such conflicts will be resolved in future legislative battles.