House to vote next week to repeal Senate-only lawsuit provision tied to phone records

WASHINGTON — House Republican leaders plan to move quickly next week on a standalone bill repealing a Senate-inserted provision that lets senators sue the federal government for up to $500,000 if their electronic data was seized without notice during federal investigations.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., announced the move Wednesday on social platform X, writing: “House Republicans are introducing standalone legislation to repeal this provision that was included by the Senate in the government funding bill. We are putting this legislation on the fast track suspension calendar in the House for next week.”

The decision followed a bipartisan outcry over the measure, which critics described as self-serving and potentially unconstitutional.

Rep. John Rose, R-Tenn., who spoke on the House floor during debate over the shutdown-ending bill, said the Senate language “creates an unequal system of justice” and “violates the separation of powers by granting special rights to members of one chamber of Congress.” Rose urged colleagues to reject “any effort that protects senators but leaves House members — and the American people — without the same safeguards.”

The contested language was quietly added to the funding package, granting senators — but not House members — the right to seek damages if their phone or digital records were obtained without their knowledge. The clause, retroactive to 2022, was written in response to revelations that former special counsel Jack Smith subpoenaed phone metadata from eight Republican senators — including both of Tennessee’s senators, Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty — as well as one House member during his investigation into the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., reportedly secured the language after pressure from GOP senators whose data had been swept up in the probe.

“I was very angry about it,” Johnson told reporters. “House members had no idea that was dropped in at the last minute.”

Removing the language before passage would have forced the funding bill back to the Senate and prolonged the shutdown, prompting Johnson to promise a follow-up repeal instead. He has not said whether Thune or Senate leaders would agree to take up the House measure if it passes.