The House repealed a provision in the continuing resolution (CR) that allows the senators targeted by special counsel Jack Smith in Arctic Frost to sue the government for up to $500,000.
The House passed it 426-0.
I laughed when the House GOP said it wanted to repeal the provision because, um, you voted for the CR. Did you really think a repeal would pass in the Senate?
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson even said he didn’t know the measure was in the CR until after it passed.
Thanks for confirming what we already know! You guys don’t read anything before you pass it.
Anyway, it appears the repeal won’t make it through the Senate.
Thune said yesterday before the House voted:
“We’ll see what the House does, but I will tell you that that was designed — that was a Senate-specific solution. The statute that was violated applied only to the Senate, which is why we addressed it the way that we did,” he [Thune] told reporters at his weekly press conference.“We strengthened that provision when it comes to allowing a federal government agency, the Justice Department, in this case, to collect information, private information, on individual senators. We think that is a violation of powers under the Constitution,” he said.The Senate GOP leader said members of his conference will continue to debate what to do if the House passes a bill to repeal senators’ ability to sue the Justice Department, but he made it clear he views the language, which he had a role in adding to the government funding package, as justified given what some Republican senators view as overreach by former special counsel Jack Smith.
A few Republican senators said they would vote for the repeal, according to Roll Call.
Smith targeted Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), but he would vote to repeal it. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) joined him:
“I just don’t understand why taking taxpayer money is a good idea,” Hawley said. “Who does that deter? That doesn’t deter Jack Smith.”Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said he would vote to repeal the provision and slammed the last-minute adding of it to the funding package. “Whoever put this in had an obligation to tell us about it, and they didn’t,” Kennedy said.Kennedy said the senators already had a case under existing law, and there was no need for the provision in the funding bill. “I don’t know how it got there, but I sure am curious to find out,” Kennedy said.
These people who are against the measure, Republicans and Democrats, blow my mind. It was literally in it. I don’t care if it was a last-minute add.
You voted for the measure. You voted for the CR.
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