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Chairman Steil's full floor remarks as prepared for delivery:
Mr. Speaker,
I rise today in support of H.R.6019, introduced by my colleague Congressman Austin Scott of Georgia.
Now before I dive into the substance, let me highlight some good news – the government is open and funded.
SNAP benefits are being funded.
Air Traffic Controllers, TSA Agents, hard-working people are getting paid.
But, of course, Mr. Speaker, if Democrats had it their way, the federal government would still be shut down.
People wouldn't be receiving their SNAP benefits.
Law enforcement officials at the federal level would not be receiving payment.
Air Traffic Controllers and TSA Agents also wouldn't be paid.
So the good news, Mr. Speaker, by passage of the underlying legislation that we are going to be discussing today, the government is open and operational for the American people.
Look - no bill is perfect, and the bill that we passed to reopen the government had a provision that needs a repair that we need to go in and remove from that bill.
The legislation by my colleague, Mr. Austin Scott of Georgia, does just that.
The troubling provisions grant Senators a private cause of action against the United States.
If a Senator’s data, either official or personal, is retrieved without their knowledge, they could sue the government.
But it also included a provision would allow Senators to receive a minimum of $500,000 per instance of data retrieval.
That policy, in my opinion and in the opinion, I think, of all the Members of this institution is unacceptable.
No elected official should be able to enrich themselves because the federal government wronged them.
Without question, there are far better ways for the legislative branch to correctly address the Biden Administration’s weaponization of the FBI to spy on United States Senators in its “Operation Arctic Frost.”
The abuses by the Biden Administration are completely unacceptable, and I am committed to holding those involved accountable.
No one benefitted from the failures of the Biden Administration.
However, that does not mean that elected officials should be financially benefiting from those failures now.
These provisions are not the right path to address the true concerns over separation of powers.
Remember, Congress serves the American people, not the other way around.
Today, we have an opportunity take a good bill that reopened the federal government and make it better by repealing the provisions that were snuck into the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act of 2026.
I urge my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to support H.R. 6019 and repeal this language and I thank my colleague Congressman Austin Scott for bringing it forward.
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