00:00So the government shutdown is over after Congress approved and the president signed a continuing resolution.
00:05But did you know that buried on page 94 is a provision that will allow Republican senators to sue the government for $500,000 each?
00:13They're fine to put, you know, million dollar little prizes in this appropriations bill so eight senators can sue the government.
00:23They're fine to send $40 billion to Argentina, but they don't want to help Americans afford their health care.
00:31That's really the fight that's on the table.
00:33It's causing quite the uproar here on Capitol Hill, and members on both sides of the aisle want to repeal it.
00:40So here's the background.
00:42United States District Court Judge James Bosberg approved secret subpoenas against at least eight senators
00:47and one member of the House of Representatives during the investigation into the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol building.
00:55The subpoenas required telecommunications companies to hand over what's called tolling data.
01:00It shows who the lawmakers called, along with the date, time, and location of the conversation.
01:05Every American should be shocked at this.
01:07This was partisan, this was political, and it's going to be fully invested.
01:10Just before the government funding bill was approved by the Senate, lawmakers inserted a special provision that will allow those senators to sue the government for $500,000 apiece.
01:21There's bipartisan opposition to this in the House of Representatives, and it almost sank the government funding package Wednesday night.
01:27To save it, Speaker Mike Johnson announced the House will fast-track a bill to repeal the measure next week.
01:33Because it isn't going through the normal legislative process, it'll need a two-thirds vote to pass.
01:38But it'll only be repealed if the Senate also approves it, and obviously the chamber isn't going to undo its own work.
01:45To show you exactly how bothered some members are by this provision, Republican Congressman Greg Stubbe changed his vote to no on the continuing resolution because of it.
01:54Quote, I could not in good conscience support a resolution that creates a self-indulgent legal provision for certain senators to enrich themselves by suing the Justice Department using taxpayer dollars.
02:06There is no reason the House should have been forced to eat this garbage to end the Schumer shutdown.
02:11I have never seen such corrupt, anti-constitutional self-dealing as we've seen come out of the United States Senate with this bill.
02:20And my colleagues who spent seven hours in the House Rules Committee last night and refused across the aisle to vote to take that out of the bill.
02:29Which means that when they vote for that bill today on the House floor, they are basically voting to pay off and pay out Senate Republicans who don't want to be held accountable for January 6th.
02:40Now this fast-track legislation has a solid chance of passing the House based on how many members have spoken out against it.
02:46But there are Republicans who believe the subpoenas were highly unethical and therefore the government should pay a price for targeting sitting members of Congress.
02:56Marcia Blackburn was completely abused and it's illegal.
02:59If they can go against a United States Senator, then dadgum they can go against anybody.
03:03And so I think they need to be caught on the carpet.
03:04I'm Ray Bogan for Straight Hour News.
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