Providing for Consideration of Senate Amendment to H.R. Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2026

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROSE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to oppose the Senate's provision that allows Senators to make financial gain off illegal government surveillance.

Three things can be true at once, Mr. Speaker. The first truth is this: The shutdown has to end. The American people and countless Tennesseans I represent are suffering and experiencing real pain. This record-breaking Schumer Democratic shutdown was completely avoidable, and it was completely carried out for political purposes.

The second truth is that the last administration, led by Joe Biden and his autopen, unfairly surveilled conservatives and conservative Members of Congress. That included sitting United States Senators.

Yet, Mr. Speaker, the third thing I would note is that the American taxpayer has suffered enough because of the last administration. No one in this body should support allowing Senators to sue and collect from taxpayers because the FBI went rogue under President Biden.

Don't get me wrong. The overreach is more than troubling. It is unfathomable that the Department of Justice was weaponized in this way. I fully support holding those radical agents accountable and the ongoing investigations into their misdeeds, yet no elected officials should profit from the political calculation of leftwing bureaucrats and judges.

Mr. Speaker, the folks I represent are still reeling from historic Bidenflation, the effects of the border crisis, and the regulatory agenda of the last administration. It is shameful to ask them to shoulder the burden of paying U.S. Senators a half million dollars or more for those misdeeds.

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