Congress
Thune steadfast on data seizure payouts for senators as Republicans seek repeal
The House plans to vote Wednesday to repeal a provision that could award eight GOP senators hundreds of thousands of dollars for having their phone records seized without their knowledge during a Biden-era probe. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who secured the measure, is standing his ground.
“The House is going to do what they are going to do with it,” he told reporters Tuesday night. “It doesn’t apply to them.”
But many senators from both parties are eager to roll back the legislative language they didn’t know Thune secretly negotiatedwith Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in the government funding package that ended the longest shutdown in history last week. Republicans could revolt if leadership doesn’t give them a vote to overturn it.
In interviews Tuesday with nearly a dozen lawmakers, confusion, frustration and anger ran rampant about what has quickly become branded as a politically toxic, taxpayer-funded windfall for a select few. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) went so far as to quip there could be “some stabbings” at the Senate GOP’s weekly lunch Wednesday when the topic will inevitably get discussed.
“Whoever put this in had an obligation to tell us about it, and they didn’t,” said Kennedy. “There’s something called trust and good faith around here.”
Even Schumer conceded the widely unpopular language should ultimately be scrapped.
“The bottom line is, Thune wanted the provision and we wanted to make sure that at least Democratic senators were protected from [Attorney General Pam] Bondi and others who might go after them,” he said Tuesday. “But I’d be for repealing all of it and I hope that happens,” he told reporters.
It’s not clear whether it’s too late to reverse course in the Senate.
The provision at issue, which President Donald Trump signed into law last week, would award senators $500,000 or more if they discover their electronic records were seized without notification.
In seeking to attach it to the funding bill, Thune was directly responding to furor from several Senate Republicans eager for retribution against former special counsel Jack Smith, who obtained the phone records for at least eight Republican senators during his investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Thune in an interview acknowledged that members would indeed discuss the issue at lunch Wednesday but reiterated that he personally was not having second thoughts about including the measure in the funding deal.
“It’s designed to protect United States senators,” Thune said. “We have a number of people who are interested in making sure that that sort of thing has a consequence if that kind of weaponization of the government along the lines of what Jack Smith did is ever employed again in the future.”
Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who claims he was targeted by the Smith probe, praised Thune for including the language. Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who is confirmed to have had his records subpoenaed during the Smith investigation, has said he plans to take advantage of the provision to make it “so painful” for those involved.
Some Senate Republicans admitted they hope the language is preserved. Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) said he wanted the provision expanded to let a broader range of parties sue to show “how corrupt Jack Smith is.”
It’s far from certain disgruntled lawmakers would make it easy for Thune to move a standalone bill to revoke the provision, even if he decides he wants to — they could insist on controversial amendments or make the voting process drawn-out and disruptive. Nor is it clear Republicans would allow the provision to be stripped in a subsequent government funding bill.
There’s far less hand-wringing in the House, where members were criticizing the language before they even voted on the Senate-passed funding bill last Thursday.
The House Wednesday evening is expected to easily pass a bill to repeal the payout provision with support from Speaker Mike Johnson and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, who is working to get Smith to sit for a transcribed interview before his committee.
In the Senate, several lawmakers signaled Tuesday night they were anxious to distance themselves from the new policy and wanted to follow the House’s lead.
“I’m going to support repealing it,” said Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), the chair of the legislative branch appropriations subcommittee.
He added he was not alerted about the language until after he already voted for the funding package last week and that he later received an “apologetic” call from GOP leadership over how the matter was handled. Thune confirmed that he had spoken to Mullin and that the Oklahoma Republican was not aware of the provision’s drafting.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said she was likewise in the dark in advance of the vote.
“That was something that the leaders put into the bill, and I played no role in that whatsoever,” she told reporters.
Democrats made clear they would continue to pummel Republicans if Thune failed to take action.
Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), the ranking member on the legislative branch appropriations subcommittee, said he was “furious” with leadership and has since introduced a bill to pare back the provision.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), another senior appropriator, said in an interview his party was “going to make every effort to try to reverse that pretty serious mistake.”
“I guess there’s an argument that it offers some future protection, but that’s not what the provision is about,” he said. “The provision is about a cash payout to Republican senators, plain and simple.”
Jennifer Scholtes and Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.
Congress
Senate agrees to end shutdown for most of DHS
After two months of unyielding negotiations, both parties gave up early Friday on reaching a grand accord to reform and fund the Department of Homeland Security.
Instead, Senate Republicans accepted what Democrats have been offering for weeks — cash for all of DHS except for ICE and part of Customs and Border Protection.
The Senate approved the funding package by a voice vote and is now expected to begin a scheduled two-week recess. The House could vote as soon as Friday, before the shutdown would break the record Saturday night for the longest funding lapse of any federal agency in U.S. history.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune called the outcome “unfortunate” Friday.
“The Dems wanted reforms. We tried to work with them on reforms. They ended up getting no reforms but, you know, we’re going to have to fight some of those battles another day,” he said.
Thune said the House was “aware” of the Senate’s plan but did not know what the other chamber would do. He also said he spoke with President Donald Trump Thursday.
The Senate’s surrender followed Trump’s announcement Thursday night that DHS will start paying TSA agents, who have worked without compensation since the shutdown began almost six weeks ago. Before that move, lawmakers and their staff worried that a nationwide walkout of TSA agents could take place as soon as Friday, according to four people with knowledge of the discussions.
Democratic senators said minutes after Trump’s announcement that there were still bipartisan talks ongoing. But Republicans, increasingly skeptical that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer would ever cut a deal, signaled that they viewed the negotiations as effectively over.
“Time is up,” Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said.
For Democrats, the solution to the DHS shutdown means no additional constraints on the two agencies left not fully funded since federal agents fatally shot Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota in January. Democrats refused to approve new spending for those agencies absent major policy changes, including banning DHS agents from wearing masks and requiring judicial warrants for immigration raids.
“Senate Democrats were clear: no blank check for a lawless ICE and Border Patrol,” Schumer said Friday. “Democrats held firm in our opposition that Donald Trump’s rogue and deadly militia should not get more funding without serious reforms.”
The Senate-approved package includes some of the provisions agreed to as part of the January funding negotiations, including $20 million for body cameras for immigration enforcement agents.
Over the last week, Republicans have been talking about pumping more funding to immigration operations without Democratic votes, by harnessing the party-line reconciliation process they used to enact their “big, beautiful” tax-cuts-focused bill last summer. Republicans pitched the strategy after Trump argued they should not take any deal unless it’s linked to the SAVE America Act, an elections bill that doesn’t have a path to passing the Senate.
Doing another party-line bill is facing early doubts from House and Senate Republicans, who are skeptical they will be able to marshal their narrow margins just months before the midterms.
In the meantime, and even if the reconciliation effort falls short, ICE and CBP can operate on what remains of the nearly $140 billion windfall they received under last year’s megabill — far more than the total of $28 billion the two agencies were previously set to receive for the current fiscal year.
Asked about pursuing another reconciliation bill for the immigration enforcement money, Thune said Friday that it is a “good possibility.”
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) warned Democrats on Friday to “be careful what you wish for” and that “the filibuster cannot save you” from what Republicans plan to enact through reconciliation.
“What’s coming next will supercharge deportations,” Schmitt added.
The unexpected resolution came as senators grew increasingly eager to end the shutdown with both congressional chambers scheduled to leave town Friday for a two-week recess.
Senate Republicans said Thursday they had made what they called their “final” offer to Democrats — funding all of DHS except ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations but with additional language meant to assuage Democrats’ concerns. But optimism for an agreement quickly ran aground in the morass of legislative negotiating.
Schumer didn’t mention the spending discussions during his daily speech from the floor Thursday. And Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.) said they weren’t presented with the latest GOP offer during Democrats’ closed-door lunch.
Hours later, Trump announced his unilateral move to pay TSA workers, short-circuiting any further talks.
Congress
Airports become political battlegrounds as DHS shutdown drags on
The six-week-old Department of Homeland Security shutdown is hinging not only on what lawmakers do in the Capitol, but on how they get there.
Members of Congress are some of America’s most frequent fliers, giving them an up-close look at the shutdown’s most dramatic impacts on Americans — the long airport security lines caused by TSA staffing shortages.
The juxtaposition of the elected jet-setters, who can take advantage of some unusual perks as they travel, with growing disruptions for everyday travelers has emerged as the most potent point of pressure as the standoff wears on.
“Generally, when elected officials have to suffer the consequences of their own inaction, it tends to provide a motive for action,” Rep. Kevin Kiley, a California independent, said Thursday.
President Donald Trump announced Thursday evening he would sign an executive order to pay TSA agents, but as prospects for a shutdown-ending deal ebbed and flowed in recent weeks, airports became politically fraught spaces for members.
Many have made clear they are waiting in lines alongside everyone else, some have proposed legislation to enshrine that principle and at least one partisan confrontation has taken place on airport property.
In a viral blow-up last week outside the airport in Austin, Texas, Democratic Rep. Greg Casar crashed an event where GOP Sen. John Cornyn was handing out hamburgers to TSA agents missing paychecks amid the funding lapse. Casar blasted Cornyn for opposing legislation that would fund TSA without providing funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“My experience at the airport speaking with TSA agents is that several that I’ve spoken with just want to see us pass a TSA-only bill and have our debate about ICE separately,” Casar said in an interview.
Cornyn then introduced legislation to end “special treatment” for members of Congress at airports by requiring that lawmakers use the same screening procedures as other travelers and banning federal funds from being used to give members expedited security screenings. The legislation passed the Senate unanimously but has not been taken up in the House.
“As many Americans probably don’t know … airports around the country allow Members of Congress to bypass the usual TSA security screening process at airports,” Cornyn said in a statement. “This should end today.”
The special security arrangements are just some of the air-travel privileges that lawmakers can enjoy. Lawmakers have been known to skip to the front of screening lines, and many take advantage of special security escorts as they move through airports.
Major airlines offer special reservation booking privileges to members of Congress and their staff, giving them direct lines with dedicated personnel devoted to handling the needs of 535 congressional offices. Some allow members to book multiple flights on the same day without penalty, giving them options in case a vote runs late or another delay arises.
Delta, the largest U.S. carrier, said Tuesday it was suspending airport escorts for lawmakers and assistance from special “red coat” agents in light of the ongoing shutdown. The airline’s dedicated “Capital Desk” reservations line remains open.
Even before the shutdown, airports have been political hazards for members of Congress. Most infamously, former Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was arrested in a 2007 bathroom sex sting inside the Minneapolis airport, effectively ending his career. Former Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) and Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) were both cited after trying to bring firearms through security checkpoints.
More recently, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) sparked a political firestorm after she was alleged to have verbally abused Charleston, South Carolina, airport workers in October after a mix-up involving her security escort. The widely publicized incident was seen as harming her campaign for governor.
The notion of lawmakers getting special air travel perks has gone viral in several instances in recent days as airport security lines have grown.
Proclaiming her support for Cornyn’s measure Thursday, Rep. Ashley Hinson of Iowa reposted a video showing old, pre-shutdown videos of Mace and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) being escorted through airports.
“Neither Republicans or Democrats should be skipping the line while constituents are facing 4+ hour waits across the country,” she said.
Virtually all of the more than 20 lawmakers Blue Light News interviewed Thursday about the airport chaos expressed sympathy for the unpaid agents, and many took pains to emphasize they had been inconvenienced alongside everyone else.
“My staff has been crushed. I got crushed a couple times. I got caught in the mess,” said Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.), who frequently flies out of Atlanta, America’s busiest airport. “First time I walked in, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, pandemonium.’”
Utah Republican Rep. Burgess Owens, who flies out of Salt Lake City, another Delta hub, said in an interview he does not use any special airline offerings for lawmakers and said he was glad those services are paused.
“Across the board, we should be living the same experience and pain that we give to other people,” he said.
“I don’t think we deserve any special perks,” added Rep. Nikki Budzinski (D-Ill.), who said the priority should be “making sure our constituents … can get through the line.”
There is, however, another point of bipartisan consensus — that the airport chaos is the other party’s fault.
“Democrats have proposed that we fund [TSA] fully,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said, referring to bills that would provide standalone funding for the agency. “Trump just refuses to take the deal.”
Speaker Mike Johnson made the opposite case in a Fox News interview Thursday afternoon.
“If you’re waiting in line at the airport, it’s because Democrats are refusing to fund the government,” he said.
Oriana Pawlyk contributed to this report.
Congress
House Republicans huddle with Johnson to plot party-line package
A large contingent of House Republicans — encompassing hard-liners, Budget Committee members, panel chairs and party leaders — piled into Speaker Mike Johnson’s office Thursday afternoon to discuss a second party-line package, according to four people granted anonymity to share details of the private meeting.
Among the lawmakers attending were Budget Chair Jodey Arrington of Texas and Republican Study Committee Chair August Pfluger, also of Texas.
Reps. Chip Roy of Texas, Byron Donalds of Florida, Tom McClintock of California and Josh Brecheen of Oklahoma were also on hand, alongside Pennsylvania Reps. Lloyd Smucker and Scott Perry.
“We’re definitely preparing to move forward,” Johnson said in an interview as he left the meeting, regarding the House GOP Conference’s plans to pursue another bill through the filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation process. “We’re talking about more details. Lots of work going on.”
One of the biggest issues members are trying to work through at the moment is how to close the wide gap between Republicans in the House and Senate. Most House Republicans want a more expansive bill with myriad conservative policy priorities to ride alongside war and defense funding, while the Senate GOP is largely pushing for a more narrowly-focused measure, according to the four people.
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