{"id":15823,"date":"2025-11-19T01:31:59","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T01:31:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/thune-steadfast-on-data-seizure-payouts-for-senators-as-republicans-seek-repeal\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T01:31:59","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T01:31:59","slug":"thune-steadfast-on-data-seizure-payouts-for-senators-as-republicans-seek-repeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/thune-steadfast-on-data-seizure-payouts-for-senators-as-republicans-seek-repeal\/","title":{"rendered":"Thune steadfast on data seizure payouts for senators as Republicans seek repeal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The House plans to vote Wednesday to repeal a provision that could award eight GOP senators hundreds of thousands of dollars for having their phone records seized without their knowledge during a Biden-era probe. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who secured the measure, is standing his ground.<\/p>\n

“The House is going to do what they are going to do with it,\u201d he told reporters Tuesday night. \u201cIt doesn’t apply to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

But many senators from both parties are eager to roll back the legislative language they didn\u2019t know Thune secretly negotiated<\/a>with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in the government funding package that ended the longest shutdown in history last week. Republicans could revolt if leadership doesn\u2019t give them a vote to overturn it.<\/p>\n

In interviews Tuesday with nearly a dozen lawmakers, confusion, frustration and anger ran rampant about what has quickly become branded as a politically toxic, taxpayer-funded windfall for a select few. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) went so far as to quip there could be \u201csome stabbings\u201d at the Senate GOP\u2019s weekly lunch Wednesday when the topic will inevitably get discussed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever put this in had an obligation to tell us about it, and they didn\u2019t,\u201d said Kennedy. \u201cThere’s something called trust and good faith around here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even Schumer conceded the widely unpopular language should ultimately be scrapped.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bottom line is, Thune wanted the provision and we wanted to make sure that at least Democratic senators were protected from [Attorney General Pam] Bondi and others who might go after them,\u201d he said Tuesday. \u201cBut I’d be for repealing all of it and I hope that happens,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear whether it\u2019s too late to reverse course in the Senate.<\/p>\n

The provision at issue, which President Donald Trump signed into law last week, would award senators $500,000 or more if they discover their electronic records were seized without notification.<\/p>\n

In seeking to attach it to the funding bill, Thune was directly responding to furor from several Senate Republicans eager for retribution against former special counsel Jack Smith, who obtained the phone records for at least eight Republican senators during his investigation into Trump\u2019s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.<\/p>\n

Thune in an interview acknowledged that members would indeed discuss the issue at lunch Wednesday but reiterated that he personally was not having second thoughts about including the measure in the funding deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s designed to protect United States senators,\u201d Thune said. \u201cWe have a number of people who are interested in making sure that that sort of thing has a consequence if that kind of weaponization of the government along the lines of what Jack Smith did is ever employed again in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who claims he was targeted by the Smith probe, praised Thune for including the language. Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who is confirmed to have had his records subpoenaed during the Smith investigation, has said he plans to take advantage<\/a> of the provision to make it \u201cso painful\u201d for those involved.<\/p>\n

Some Senate Republicans admitted they hope the language is preserved. Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) said he wanted the provision expanded to let a broader range of parties sue to show \u201chow corrupt Jack Smith is.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s far from certain disgruntled lawmakers would make it easy for Thune to move a standalone bill to revoke the provision, even if he decides he wants to \u2014 they could insist on controversial amendments or make the voting process drawn-out and disruptive. Nor is it clear Republicans would allow the provision to be stripped in a subsequent government funding bill.<\/p>\n

There’s far less hand-wringing in the House, where members were criticizing the language before they even voted on the Senate-passed funding bill last Thursday.<\/p>\n

The House Wednesday evening is expected to easily pass a bill to repeal the payout provision with support from Speaker Mike Johnson and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, who is working to get Smith to sit for a transcribed interview before his committee.<\/p>\n

In the Senate, several lawmakers signaled Tuesday night they were anxious to distance themselves from the new policy and wanted to follow the House\u2019s lead.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m going to support repealing it,\u201d said Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), the chair of the legislative branch appropriations subcommittee.<\/p>\n

He added he was not alerted about the language until after he already voted for the funding package last week and that he later received an \u201capologetic\u201d call from GOP leadership over how the matter was handled. Thune confirmed that he had spoken to Mullin and that the Oklahoma Republican was not aware of the provision\u2019s drafting.<\/p>\n

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said she was likewise in the dark in advance of the vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was something that the leaders put into the bill, and I played no role in that whatsoever,\u201d she told reporters.<\/p>\n

Democrats made clear they would continue to pummel Republicans if Thune failed to take action.<\/p>\n

Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), the ranking member on the legislative branch appropriations subcommittee, said he was \u201cfurious\u201d with leadership and has since introduced a bill to pare back the provision.<\/p>\n

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), another senior appropriator, said in an interview his party was \u201cgoing to make every effort to try to reverse that pretty serious mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess there’s an argument that it offers some future protection, but that’s not what the provision is about,\u201d he said. \u201cThe provision is about a cash payout to Republican senators, plain and simple.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jennifer Scholtes and Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The House plans to vote Wednesday to repeal a provision that could award eight GOP senators hundreds of thousands of dollars for having their phone records seized without their knowledge during a Biden-era probe. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who secured the measure, is standing his ground. “The House is going to do what they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15823\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}