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House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday that the House will vote next week to repeal a little-known provision slipped into the bipartisan bill that ended the 43-day government shutdown — a clause that could allow several Republican senators to sue the federal government for up to $500,000 each over a Justice Department data request.
The provision, buried deep within the government funding package, applies only to senators and retroactively covers data requests made after Jan. 1, 2022. It allows lawmakers to sue if their phone “tolling data” — which shows who they called and for how long, but not the content of conversations — was accessed without proper notification.
Johnson said he was blindsided by the inclusion. “I was surprised. I was shocked by it, and I was angry about it, to be honest,” the Louisiana Republican told reporters. “Some members got together and hoisted that upon the bill at the last minute. I wish they hadn’t. We’re going to fix it in the House.”
The speaker said on X (formerly Twitter) that House Republicans will introduce stand-alone legislation next week to strike the language, adding that the measure will be fast-tracked for a vote. It will require a two-thirds majority to pass and head back to the Senate.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D, and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. added the controversial clause to a section funding the legislative branch through September. Both leaders have since faced bipartisan backlash.
“I am furious that the Senate Minority and Majority Leaders chose to airdrop this provision into this bill at the eleventh hour,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., who chairs the subcommittee that normally handles such funding. “This is precisely what’s wrong with the Senate.”
According to documents released in October by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the FBI requested phone record data from eight Republican senators and one House member on Sept. 27, 2023, as part of an investigation connected to former special counsel Jack Smith’s Jan. 6 probe.
The affected senators include Ron Johnson (Wis.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Bill Hagerty (Tenn.), Josh Hawley (Mo.), Dan Sullivan (Alaska), Tommy Tuberville (Ala.), Cynthia Lummis (Wyo.), and Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.). Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) was also named in the disclosure but is not covered by the new law.
Thune’s office declined to comment on the authorship of the clause, though a GOP aide said he added it “at the request of members.” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, defended the provision, saying it would “provide real teeth to the prohibition on the Department of Justice targeting senators.”
Graham said he supports the measure and would sue if it remains law. “I want to make it so painful no one ever does this again,” he told reporters.
Schumer’s office initially defended making the clause prospective — to prevent future abuse — but later said the minority leader now supports Johnson’s effort to repeal it.
Democrats who voted for the government funding package largely said they were unaware the clause existed. Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) each told NBC News they back removing it.
“This provision was added at the eleventh hour without our knowledge,” a Hassan spokesperson said. “Senator Hassan strongly supports efforts to reverse it.”
