A hidden clause in the government shutdown bill could give 8 senators at least $1M each

WASHINGTON — Now that the longest government shutdown in U.S. history has ended, a new controversy is emerging over a little-noticed clause that could personally enrich sitting senators.

Buried deep inside the 394-page bill to reopen the government, the Senate added a provision allowing senators to sue the U.S. government for at least $1 million each if federal investigators obtained their phone or digital records without notice.

The clause, retroactive to 2022, appears to apply to eight Republican senators whose phone records were subpoenaed during Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

“…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.”

Because each senator could claim two separate violations — one for the subpoena and one for the nondisclosure order — the potential payout would start at $1 million per person, paid directly by U.S. taxpayers.

According to NBC News, the eight senators who had their phone records accessed are: Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.

“It allows senators to write themselves, and only themselves, million-dollar checks because their phone records were legally subpoenaed. Checks paid for by American taxpayers,” said Rep. Johnny Olszewski (D-Md.). “It’s corruption at a whole new level.”

Several members of Congress objected to the provision because it was not made available to regular members of the public, or even members of the House. Only Senators could collect. 

“It is unconscionable that what we are debating right now is legislation that will give eight members of the United States Senate over a million dollars apiece, robbing people of their food assistance and their health care to pay for it,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). “How is this even on the floor?”

House Democrats, including Judiciary Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin, have blasted the measure as a corrupt “jackpot” inserted at the last minute.

“This bill, which they now call imperfect, contains the single most corrupt provision for legislative self-dealing that anyone in this chamber today has ever voted on,” Raskin said during floor debate. “It is such an egregiously corrupt act of legislator self-enrichment and plunder of the taxpayer that not only did every single House Democrat oppose it in the Rules Committee last night, but multiple Republicans were denouncing it — that is, before they were summoned into a side room and instructed to vote for it, which they all proceeded to do.

“Now they’re telling us to vote for it today and they’ll repeal it maybe next week, or maybe the week after that, or maybe before Christmas,” Raskin said. “I’ve got a solution for you: if you don’t like this corrupt provision, don’t vote for it today. That will work.”

Raskin, who led the second impeachment of President Donald Trump and who held a senior role on the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, compared the million-dollar carve-out to “a jackpot bonanza payoff from the taxpayers.”

Notably, the amendment would remove the government’s sovereign immunity for such lawsuits, weakening a longstanding legal shield that protects the government’s law enforcement agencies, virtually guaranteeing payouts if any senator sues.

Despite bipartisan criticism, House leaders said they would move forward with the broader shutdown deal to ensure federal operations resume immediately, promising to revisit or repeal the controversial section “next week.”