Senate provision allowing some GOP to sue feds for $500k won’t extend to House Republicans

A provision tucked into a measure to fund the legislative branch as part of the deal to reopen the government will allow senators to sue for as much as half a million dollars each when federal investigators search their phone records without notifying them, but this applies only to congresspeople in the Senate and not the House of Representatives, reports the New York Times.

Writer Devlin Barrett says this provision, retroactive until 2022, will "immediately allow for eight GOP senators to sue the government over their phone records being seized in the course of the investigation by Jack Smith, the former special counsel, into the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021."

"The provision would make it a violation of the law to not notify a senator if their phone records or other metadata was taken from a service provider like a phone company," Barrett explains.

The bill's language is specific solely to senators, however.

"Any senator whose Senate data, or the Senate data of whose Senate office, has been acquired, subpoenaed, searched, accessed, or disclosed in violation of this section may bring a civil action against the United States if the violation was committed by an officer, employee, or agent of the United States or of any federal department or agency," it reads.

The Republican senators whose phone records were subpoenaed as part of the investigation were: Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY).

That means that Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA), who also had his phone records subpoenaed, is ineligible because he is a member of the House, Barrett notes.

The AP's White House reporter Seung Min Kim pointed this out on X, saying, "Side note: Incredible 'Senate-ing' here as senators make this applicable just to them, not House members."