Nov. 19 (UPI) — The House of Representatives is considering a measure that would end a budget provision allowing senators to seek up to $500,000 when federal investigators review their phone records without their knowledge.
The House has suspended rules to fast-track the proposed bill for a vote Wednesday, which requires a two-thirds vote of its members to approve. Ample support for the measure exists, according to CBS News.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., on Tuesday defended the provision enabling senators to sue the Justice Department for accessing their phone records without their knowledge during the Biden administration.
“The House isn’t implicated in what we did,” Thune told media. “It just simply applies to the Senate.”
He said federal investigators broke federal law and accused the Biden administration of weaponizing the DOJ against political opponents.
“There’s a statute that obviously was violated,” Thune explained. “What this does is enable people who are harmed — in this case, United States senators — to have a private right of action against the weaponization by the Justice Department.”
The House likely will vote to remove that option from senators when voting on the proposed measure Wednesday night, ABC News reported.
The Senate included the provision in the budget bill that became law and reopened the federal government following a record 43-day shutdown when the 2026 fiscal year started Oct. 1.
The provision was added in response to former special counsel Jack Smith accessing the phone records of eight Republican senators while he was investigating the efforts of President Donald Trump and his supporters to overturn the 2020 election.
Several of the affected senators told ABC News they don’t intend to file a lawsuit.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is one of them and said he will support the House bill to kill the lawsuit option.
“I think it’s a bad idea,” Hawley said. “I had my phone tapped, so I’m all for accountability.” But, he said, “Taking taxpayer money is not the right way to do it,” though. The right way to do it is tough oversight.
Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., also had his phone records accessed and favors the measure empowering him and others to sue the DOJ.
He told Fox News host Sean Hannity that he would sue the DOJ for “tens of millions of dollars” while the measure is still active, despite it limiting damages sought at $500,000.
Graham called the matter “worse than Watergate” and a politicized “effort to destroy President Trump” by charging him with “crimes that are just ridiculous.”
“If you don’t sue, they’ll keep doing it,” he said.
