The provision allowed US senators to personally recover a minimum of $500,000 for each time their data was subpoenaed in violation of the law.
U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Nov. 20 denied unanimous consent to pass legislation that would repeal a controversial provision of the government funding law enacted on Nov. 12, which allows U.S. senators to potentially collect millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded legal damages.
The provision in question was inserted by the Senate into the Continuing Appropriations Act of 2026, and allows senators “whose Senate data, or the Senate data of whose Senate office, has been acquired, subpoenaed, searched, accessed, or disclosed” in violation of the law, to sue the United States and personally recover a minimum of $500,000 per violation in damages.
The provision was inserted into the act without prior knowledge of the House of Representatives, which universally condemned the measure.
The act passed because of the urgent need to restore government funding.
The House’s bill to repeal this provision of the funding law was passed unanimously, by a vote of 426 yeas to 0 nays, on Nov. 19.
When presented to the Senate, Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) rose on Nov. 20 to move that the bill be passed by unanimous consent—a common practice where opponents are notified in advance and are present to object, making the outcome foregone before the attempt is made.
To this, Graham objected and defended the provision, stating that it was necessary to avoid alleged abuses by the executive branch of its surveillance authorities.
“What did I do to allow the government to seize my personal phone and seize my official phone, when I was Senate Judiciary Chairman?
“Jack Smith [issued] a subpoena for the phone records of a branch of government, the Senate, that had to decide whether to certify the [2020] election,” said Graham on the Senate floor in remarks preceding his objection.
He was referring to the now-concluded criminal investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice into President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Recent disclosures about that investigation revealed the department had subpoenaed the phone records of several U.S. Senators who were allies of Trump, to ascertain information about Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results.
By Arjun Singh
