The House on Wednesday unanimously moved to repeal a controversial provision in the government funding law that allows senators to sue the Justice Department for up to $500,000 when their phone records are seized without their knowledge.
The provision, included in the legislation that ended the historic shutdown, requires senators be notified when federal investigators access their phone records, with some exceptions. If they’re not notified, the lawmakers can sue the federal government for up to $500,000 in damages for each violation.
House members publicly wary of the measure voted 426-0 to nullify the provision. But its future remains in doubt in the Senate, where Majority Leader John Thune had added it to the bill at the request of several members of his conference.
Tucked into one of the appropriations bills, the language comes after Senate Republicans released FBI records related to an investigation called “Arctic Frost,” which pertained to the fake elector scheme from 2020 where Donald Trump allies pressured GOP electors to register Electoral College votes for Trump from states that former President Joe Biden won.
It’s caused bipartisan furor on Capitol Hill and spotlighted a rare divide between the top Republican leaders. House Speaker Mike Johnson said he was blindsided by the measure, while Thune has resolutely stood behind it.
https://lite.cnn.com/2025/11/19/politics/arctic-frost-provision-senators-house-vote
The clause was added last-minute in a bill to end the government shutdown and retroactively applied to 2022 and beyond, as part of the fallout from the investigation into the Donald Trump-era events around January 6, 2021
It wasn’t just the amount ($500K) that caused outrage, but the optics: taxpayer funds possibly going to a small number of senators, via a secretive inclusion in a bill many legislators felt they didn’t have full visibility on.
https://theweek.com/politics/republican-senators-shutdown-provision