The House unanimously voted on Wednesday to repeal a clause embedded in the recently approved government funding bill. This clause permitted senators to sue the Justice Department for up to $500,000 if their phone records were seized without their knowledge.
The senators moved forward with this action with the approval of Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), catching House members off guard and leaving them outraged by the decision.
The vote to reverse the Senate perk was 426-0, Axios reported.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) stated that he was unaware of the provision being included in the package until after the Senate had passed it, and he left town for the rest of that week.
“I wish they hadn’t, and I think it was a really bad look,” Johnson told reporters.
The proposal was created after eight senators discovered that their phone records had been taken by the Justice Department during Biden’s administration as a part of the Arctic Frost investigation. Only senators were allowed to retroactively sue the federal government.
Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif) criticized the law, calling it a “Be a Millionaire provision” for senators, and held Johnson responsible for its passage.
“The Senate was so thoroughly convinced of the House’s irrelevance that they thought that they could literally insert a self-enrichment scheme into the legislation and get away with it,” Kiley said on the House floor Wednesday.
Johnson kept the House adjourned throughout the shutdown.
Axios noted further that Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas.) called the provision “self-serving” and “self-dealing.”
Johnson promised to introduce the bill last week after his colleagues threatened to derail the government funding package due to the provision. If the House had decided to remove the provision from the funding package, it would have extended the already record-breaking government shutdown, Axios noted.
The Speaker noted that he shared his members’ concerns. “I trust John Thune,” Johnson said last week. “He’s a great leader, but some members got together and hoisted that upon, put it into the bill at the last minute.”
Johnson and Thune disagree on the next steps. Thune has defended the provision and remains uncommitted about whether the Senate will address the repeal.
“The House is going to do what they’re going to do with it,” Thune told reporters Tuesday night. “The law that was violated was a statute that only affected the Senate. We drafted this whole thing not to in any way implicate the House.”
Meanwhile, the Senate voted overwhelmingly this week to pass a key piece of legislation aimed at bolstering the country’s nuclear energy sector. The package was combined with another bill that reauthorized the U.S. Fire Administration and grant programs for firefighters.
The measure aims to accelerate the process of approving the construction of new nuclear plants as many of the country’s existing plants reach the end of their serviceable lives, Newsweek reported.
Additionally, it reduces the licensing fees that power companies must pay to initiate projects. It also mandates the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to prepare a report examining ways to simplify and expedite the environmental review process.
The bill passed by a vote of 88-2, with Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) opposing the measure.
The passage comes as the Trump administration has placed an extreme focus on “unleashing American energy.”
President Trump issued four executive orders directing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to streamline regulations and expedite the issuance of new licenses for nuclear power facilities, to act on applications within 18 months.
The U.S. was once the world leader in nuclear design and construction. But delays and exorbitant prices have ceded that position to China, which is building a record number of reactors.
