Thune offers to revise Senate phone data provision to instead send money from lawsuits to Treasury

Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Thursday offered to revise a provision the upper chamber slipped into the recent spending bill ending the government shutdown that would also give money to senators who won lawsuits over their phone data being accessed, proposing the settlement instead go to the Treasury Department.

The House on Wednesday repealed the provision, which had allowed eight Republican senators whose phone records were accessed as part of an FBI investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot to sue the government if they were not notified that law enforcement sought their records.

The provision also required that the senators be notified if their data is disclosed. If the senators had not been notified and they successfully sued, the court would have been required to award “the greater of statutory damages of $500,000 or the amount of actual damages” for each violation.

The provision does not apply if the senator is the target of a criminal investigation or if a court ordered that the notification be delayed. 

Thune’s proposal would clarify that payouts to the senators would be given to the U.S. Treasury and would not personally enrich lawmakers, according to ABC News.

"This measure that we passed does indeed give important protections to members, and I think it's an important defense of separation of powers," Thune said. "It protects Democrats and it protects Republicans alike from a weaponized Department of Justice that is pursuing political enemies. 

"The measure was never meant to enrich senators," he continued. "It's always been true under our rules that members wouldn't keep damages they recover under this measure, and so I would hope that we can work together to pass a resolution to reflect what's always been true and what I've been saying all along, and that is that this measure is about accountability and not profit."

New Mexico Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich blocked an attempt to pass the revision by unanimous consent, but said he would be willing to work on a compromise on which both parties and chambers can agree.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.