Speaker Johnson Angry Over ‘Hidden’ Measure In Bill to Reopen Govt.
A quiet clause buried deep inside the Senate’s latest government funding package has erupted into a major flashpoint, as Republicans renew their criticism of surveillance practices carried out during the Biden administration’s Jan. 6–era investigations.
What was expected to be a routine bipartisan effort to prevent a government shutdown instead ignited an institutional feud, after House Republicans discovered that Senate lawmakers had quietly inserted a carve-out granting themselves special legal protections — protections not extended to anyone else in Congress.
The provision shields senators who were reportedly targeted by former special counsel Jack Smith’s “Arctic Frost” probe, allowing them to sue the federal government if surveillance was conducted without notice. The benefit applies only to eight GOP senators: Lindsey Graham, Bill Hagerty, Josh Hawley, Dan Sullivan, Tommy Tuberville, Ron Johnson, Cynthia Lummis, and Marsha Blackburn. Each could receive up to $500,000 in damages.
House Republicans were blindsided.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) abruptly reconvened the House — cutting short a 54-day recess — to address what many members saw as a last-minute maneuver executed without transparency or consultation.
“We had no idea that was dropped in at the last minute, and I did not appreciate that, nor did most of the House members,” Johnson told reporters, blasting the unusual privilege as unnecessary and fundamentally unfair.
Members of the House argued the Senate’s self-granted protections created an unacceptable double standard: senators could seek compensation for government overreach, but House members had no comparable remedy — nor did the countless Jan. 6 defendants whose lives were upended by aggressive federal surveillance and prosecutions.
Rep. John Rose (R-TN) aired his frustrations publicly, writing on X after a Newsmax interview:
“@SpeakerJohnson has every right to be angry—so am I, and so are taxpayers in Tennessee and across America. Republican Senators secretly tucked in a clause to hand THEMSELVES up to $500,000 of your money for being targeted by Biden’s DOJ—without telling us. Half a million for them, but NOTHING for the thousands of J6ers.”
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) called the arrangement “shady” and a “fubar,” adding:
“These senators slipped in a provision to reopen the government that guarantees them $500k if DOJ settles their Arctic Frost lawsuit. And we’re supposed to be okay with that? What about J6? This is outrageous. Really disappointed to see some of the names on this list. You can’t self-deal like this—especially not by weaponizing a government shutdown. Absolutely ridiculous, @LeaderJohnThune.”
Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) went even further, voting against the stopgap bill and branding the move “self-dealing.” He warned that any attempt by the House to undo the provision would likely be crushed by the Senate.
Still, House Republicans ultimately moved the legislation forward to avert a prolonged shutdown. The bill funds several key agencies — including Veterans Affairs and Agriculture — through January. A Democratic bid to extend soon-to-expire Affordable Care Act subsidies was removed, though Senate Democrats say they plan to revive the push next month.
Meanwhile, new reporting suggests the Jan. 6 surveillance dragnet reached beyond the Senate. Smith’s team reportedly seized the phone records of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and former Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), fueling broader GOP accusations that Biden-era prosecutors weaponized investigative tools for political purposes.
The episode has exposed deepening rifts inside the Republican Party, with House members accusing Senate Republicans of looking out for themselves while ignoring unequal treatment across branches — and ignoring Americans caught in the Jan. 6 legal system with far fewer rights than the political class.
As lawmakers navigate the fallout, the dispute has sharpened a central question: who in Washington gets protected from government overreach — and who gets left behind?