Senate Republicans, Dems block dueling attempts to repeal controversial Arctic Frost provision

Senate Republicans and Democrats squared off on the Senate floor on Thursday, blocking attempt after attempt to repeal, or change, a controversial law that would allow senators to sue for hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money.

The partisan back-and-forth came as lawmakers in the upper chamber were jetting from Washington, D.C., for the upcoming Thanksgiving recess. 

Two different attempts to try and fast-track a repeal or tweak of the law that would allow senators targeted in the Biden-led Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Arctic Frost probe to sue the federal government for $500,000 were shut down. 

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The provision, dubbed “Requiring Senate Notification for Senate Data,” was tucked away in the government funding package designed to reopen the government and signed into law by President Donald Trump last week.

There has been growing bipartisan fury over the law — varying from anger that it would allow lawmakers to possibly enrich themselves with taxpayer money, that it was included at the last minute into the package to reopen the government, and the retroactive nature of the provision — and numerous calls to have it repealed. The House unanimously passed legislation Wednesday night to do just that. 

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., offered a resolution that would clarify that any monetary damages won in a lawsuit against the government would not go toward personal enrichment for a senator, but would instead be forfeited to the U.S. Treasury, still maintaining the core idea of the law to act as a deterrent from the DOJ subpoenaing records from senators without notifying them. 

“Just to be clear, no personal enrichment, accountability,” Thune said on the Senate floor. “And I think protection for the Article One branch of our government, which, in my view, based on what we saw and what we’re seeing as the facts continue to come into the Arctic Frost investigation, there was clearly a violation of the law and a law that needs to be strengthened and clarified, so those protections are in place for future members of the United States Senate.”

But his attempt was swiftly blocked by Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich.

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“I’m not saying there was anything nefarious, but it got in there, it clearly is wrong,” he said. “Anybody who looks at the face of it knows it’s wrong. That’s why the House voted unanimously, and that’s why I hope at some point we can do the right thing and fix this.”

Thune, after requests from some in the Senate GOP, included the provision in the Legislative Branch appropriations bill as lawmakers were hammering out the final details of the bipartisan package to reopen the government.

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He was given the green-light by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who argued that he wanted to give Democratic senators protections from the DOJ under the Trump administration. Still, he wanted to see the provision repealed after the fact. 

Thune’s move to tweak the bill followed a similar fast-track request from Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., who wanted to force a vote on the House’s bill to completely repeal the law. 

Heinrich, who is the top Democrat on the Legislative Branch appropriations subcommittee, charged that the provision was airdropped into the bill “at the last minute” by Senate Republicans and would allow Senate Republicans targeted in former Special Counsel Jack Smith in his Arctic Frost probe to sue for “millions of dollars from the U.S. government.”

“That means that each senator could actually pocket millions of dollars and that money would be paid from your hard-earned tax dollars,” he said. “And that’s even though the law was followed by the government at the time. And it’s frankly, this is just outrageous to me.”

But some in the Senate GOP, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tx., don’t want to see the law repealed.

And Graham was on the Senate floor to block Heinrich’s move. 

He argued that his phone records were not lawfully obtained, and that he wouldn’t let, “The Democratic Party decide my fate. We’re going to let a judge decide my fate.”

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“This is really outrageous,” Graham said. “You want to use that word? I am really outraged that my private cell phone and my official phone were subpoenaed without cause. That a judge would suggest that I would destroy evidence or tamper with witnesses if I were told about what was going on.”

“I’m going to sue,” he continued. “I want to let you know I’m going to sue Biden’s DOJ and Jack Smith. I’m going to sue Verizon, and it’s going to be a hell of a lot more than $500,000.”