House axes provision letting senators sue over data surveillance

By Thérèse Boudreaux
The Center Square

The U.S. House has repealed a section in the recently-passed government funding bill that would have allowed individual senators to sue the federal government for at least $500,000 if it violated their data privacy rights.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., had added the controversial provision to Republicans’ shutdown-ending funding bill in response to new whistleblower revelations about the former Biden administration.

As part of the “Arctic Frost” probe to determine whether President Donald Trump and his allies tried to overturn the 2020 election, intelligence officials secretly subpoenaed the private phone records of at least eight Republican U.S. senators.

Thune’s last-minute addition to the funding bill would have allowed Sens. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.; Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; Josh Hawley, R-Mo.; Ron Johnson, R-Wis.; Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo.; Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska; Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn.; and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.; to bring a civil action against the U.S. government for such violations.

While some senators supported the measure, others, including the targeted Blackburn, opposed it alongside House lawmakers, who argued that there are better ways to remedy federal abuses of power.

“No elected official should be able to enrich themselves because the federal government wronged them,” Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Wis., told lawmakers. “The abuses by the Biden Administration are completely unacceptable, and I am committed to holding those involved accountable…However, that does not mean that elected officials should be financially benefiting from those failures now.”

The House’s bill repealing the provision, which passed the chamber unanimously Wednesday night, faces an uncertain future in the Senate.