Arctic Frost provision signed into law as part of shutdown funding bill

Senate Majority Leader John Thune inserted a provision into the November 12, 2025 government funding bill — the legislation that ended the 43-day government shutdown, the longest full shutdown in U.S. history — giving U.S. senators the right to sue the federal government for up to $500,000 per violation when investigators obtain their phone metadata without advance notice. The provision applies retroactively to data requests from January 1, 2022 forward. Thune did not inform House Republican leaders Speaker Mike Johnson or Majority Leader Steve Scalise before inserting it.