Lindsey Graham blocks House-passed bill to repeal shutdown deal provision allowing $500,000 lawsuits from senators
Washington (CBS News) — According to CBS News, Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, blocked a Democrat-led effort to approve a House-passed measure to repeal a controversial provision that allows senators to sue for $500,000 if federal investigators search their phone records without their knowledge.
Sen. Martin Heinrich, a New Mexico Democrat, sought unanimous consent to approve the measure after the House unanimously passed the bill Wednesday, saying the provision many lawmakers are looking to repeal, which was tucked in last week’s funding package, represents a country that “is not serving the people.”
“Last week Republicans in Congress passed a government funding bill that denies affordable health care to millions of Americans,” Heinrich said. “But what most people don’t know is that they also voted to provide millions of dollars to a few Republican senators in a blatant, tax-funded cash grab.”
The new law requires service providers to notify senators if their phone records or other data are seized or subpoenaed, and senators are entitled to $500,000 for each violation. It also applies retroactively to 2022, allowing the senators whose phone records were seized during special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the 2020 election to sue the federal government.
But Graham, one of the senators whose phone records were subpoenaed, blocked the bill. Any single lawmaker has the power to block a bill’s passage under unanimous consent rules.
“What did I do wrong?” Graham said, refuting the idea that it was a lawful subpoena. “What did I do to allow the government to seize my personal phone and my official phone when I was Senate Judiciary chairman?”
Graham deferred to Senate Majority Leader John Thune during his objection, asking him whether the provision had been socialized with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the committees of relevant jurisdiction and with the Ethics Committee. Thune said yes.
“So this wasn’t Republicans doing this,” Graham said. “This was people in the Senate believing what happened to the Senate need never happen again.”
After outlining his plans to sue under the new law, the South Carolina Republican then gave the floor to Thune, who proposed to adjust the new law to “address the question that has been raised about personal enrichment.” He said with the change, any damages awarded under the law would be “forfeited to the United States Treasury.”
“This measure is about accountability and not profit,” Thune said, requesting unanimous consent to make the change.
Heinrich objected to Thune’s request, saying: “I think we should work with our colleagues in the House to address the underlying issue of protecting members without the outrageous damage provisions that were retroactively put into this statute.”
