WASHINGTON — Speaker Mike Johnson announced plans to pursue legislation next week that would repeal a Senate provision in a major spending package that incensed House Republicans and threatened to prolong the partial government shutdown.

The must-pass spending measure drew eleventh-hour objections from House members of both parties after the discovery in recent days of a provision that would allow senators to sue for at least $500,000 each when federal investigators search their phone records in a judicially sanctioned probe without notifying them.

It would also apply retroactively, meaning at least 10 senators whose records were searched by former special counsel John L. “Jack” Smith in his probe of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol would automatically be entitled to big payouts.

Republican members of the House Rules Committee, at a hearing that stretched into the wee hours of Wednesday morning, expressed consternation over the provision, which applies only to senators. While they vowed to find a way to change or eliminate the provision, several GOP members said they were not prepared to do so by derailing the package needed to end the shutdown.

Johnson’s new commitment to address the concern, announced on the social platform X, appeared likely to clear the way for Republicans to vote for the spending package.

“We are putting this legislation on the fast-track suspension calendar in the House for next week,” the Louisiana Republican said. Passage through suspension of the rules would require a two-thirds majority vote, which appeared within reach because of bipartisan opposition to the Senate provision.

Johnson said he had not been aware that the Senate provision was slipped into the spending package.

“I found out about it last night,” he told reporters. “I was surprised. I was shocked by it and I was angry about it.”

But the fate of the stand-alone measure in the Senate was anything but certain. Republican senators were furious to learn that Smith had subpoenaed their phone records in 2023 without their knowledge. Smith, through attorneys, has defended the search as a lawful attempt to probe the actions of President Donald Trump and associates that led up to the Jan. 6 attack.

And some Democrats, for their part, fear what Trump’s Justice Department might do to them without similar legal protections. But Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., supports Johnson’s effort to repeal the provision and would push for its passage in the Senate, a spokesperson said.

While Johnson’s new move appeared likely to trigger a fight with Senate Republicans, it also boosted the chances of winning enough support for the bill to end the shutdown.

Even before the offer of new stand-alone legislation, Johnson had expressed confidence he would have the votes to clear the Senate-passed package after a 43-day battle that centered on a Democratic fight to extend enhanced health insurance subsidies that are set to expire at year’s end.

“We believe the long national nightmare will be over tonight,” the Louisiana Republican told reporters at a brief news conference Wednesday morning. “It was completely and utterly foolish and pointless in the end, as we said all along.”

Trump plans to sign the spending measure as soon as it reaches his desk. “And we hope that signing will take place later tonight,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a briefing.

The package would fund the government through Jan. 30 and provide full-year appropriations for the departments of Agriculture and Veterans Affairs, along with legislative operations. It would also reverse thousands of layoffs of federal employees the White House sought to implement during the shutdown, while preventing future mass layoffs at least through the end of January.

But a vote to secure final passage wasn’t guaranteed. Most Democrats are determined to oppose the package because it does nothing to extend the health subsidies. And Johnson can afford to lose no more than two GOP votes if all Democrats were to vote against it, though a handful of centrist Democrats could decide to support the measure to end the shutdown.

Dicey rule vote

The first test of GOP support for the bill will come late Wednesday afternoon, when the House is scheduled to vote on adopting a rule to govern floor debate on the package.

That vote could prove tougher than the passage vote because rules are typically adopted strictly along party lines, meaning Democrats who might be willing to vote for the bill may still be unwilling to support the GOP’s rule.

Democratic leaders, meanwhile, announced plans to continue their fight for extending health subsidies through the use of a discharge petition, which forces an automatic floor vote if supporters can muster the 218 signatures required.

“The legislation that we will introduce in the context of a discharge petition will provide that level of certainty to working-class Americans who are on the verge of seeing their premiums, copays and deductibles skyrocket, in some cases experiencing increases of $1,000 or $2,000 per year,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., told reporters. “This is unsustainable, unacceptable, and it’s un-American,” he said.

But the three-year extension of subsidies Democrats are seeking is unlikely to win enough support from moderate Republicans to trigger a floor vote. Some Republicans have expressed support for a short-term extension with changes to the subsidies that could include income limits and new guardrails against fraud.

Jeffries signaled Wednesday he had no intention of brokering a bipartisan compromise on his resolution.

“Republicans have zero credibility on this issue,” he said. “There’s no evidence that they’re serious about extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits.”

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(John T. Bennett contributed to this report.)

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