House repeal blocked by Republican senators

Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we have the beginnings of a small spat in Congress among Republicans.

Shockingly, the culprits are swamp rats that have been floating in these waters for many years.

This is all over a measure dropped into the continuing resolution (CR) to create a taxpayer-funded windfall for senators named in the Arctic Frost investigation.

Through the House

The measure was never mentioned by the Senate when it was added to the CR, and apparently, nobody in the House read it before they signed it.

After the fact, it was reported that there was a new provision that would allow senators who had been subject to their phone records being pulled in the Arctic Frost investigation to be able to sue the government for up to $500,000. The measure was written as such that it would also cover future occurrences, which is why Senator Schumer (D-N.Y.) signed off on it.

Republicans responsible for oversight of the bill claimed they did not realize it was in the bill because they “trusted” the Senate to pass them a clean CR. So, think about that for a second… the people who are charged with overseeing the bill trusted someone else to just give them a clean bill. And we wonder why we constantly find surprises in these bills.

When the House put legislation on the floor to repeal the measure, it passed 426-0.

Pleading Ignorance

If you are wondering why Republicans in the Senate did not say anything, well, they claim they did not know about it either.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), one of the Senators who would be able to sue the government, said he did not know it was in the bill until he read it, so I have to question if he read it before he voted on it.

He responded, “I wasn’t asked about it. I wasn’t told about it. I’m one of the eight people to whom it applies, and I knew nothing about it till I read it in the bill. So, not a great way to do business.”

So, if he read it before, why would he not ask about it or expose it to the public? That means he supported it, that is, unless he did not actually read the bill in full until after he voted for it.

I Want More

The bill was sent to the Senate, where it was blocked by none other than Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who made it clear he wants a big payday.

When asked about why he blocked it, he responded, "I'm going to sue. 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."

I love how he calls it the “Biden DOJ,” because that does not matter one bit. Any settlement would still come from the Treasury, which means it is funded with our tax dollars.

I get that they are upset, but don’t take it out on the American taxpayer. We should not have to foot the bill for any perceived overreach. This addendum, to me, is utterly disgusting and goes against everything conservatives stand for. I would have expected this from a bunch of Democrats, not Republicans, but it once again proves that the Swamp is alive and well in DC.