Johnson says House will have standalone vote to strip controversial Senate provision from funding bill

Source: ABC News

November 12, 2025, 5:51 PM


Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday the House will hold a standalone vote next week on stripping out a Senate provision in the government funding bill that allows senators to sue the government if their phone records are investigated without notifying them.

Eight Republican senators had their phone records subpoenaed by special counsel Jack Smith as part of his investigation into Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The provision would allow them to seek hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages.

The provision was debated in the House Rules Committee on Tuesday night before the funding bill was sent to the House floor for a vote Wednesday.

Several House Republicans, including Reps. Tom Cole, Chip Roy, Austin Scott and Morgan Griffith, sharply criticized the provision during the hearing, questioning how the provision landed in a funding bill.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/provision-government-funding-bill-allows-senators-sue-secretly/story?id=127429007