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House Votes 426–0 to Repeal Senate-Only $500,000 Phone-Records Lawsuit Provision

Its fate rests with a Senate split over whether the Thune-authored response to Arctic Frost is needed protection or self-dealing.

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A view of the dome of the U.S. Capitol building, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. U.S., September 19, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura/File Photo
Senate Majority Leader John Thune prepares to speak to reporters at the US Capitol on November 19, 2025, in Washington, DC.

Overview

  • The House sent a unanimous repeal to the Senate targeting language slipped into the shutdown-ending funding law that lets senators sue for up to $500,000 per unnoticed seizure of their data and requires prior notice of such requests.
  • The clause was crafted after disclosures that the FBI and special counsel Jack Smith’s Arctic Frost probe obtained tolling metadata from as many as 10 Republican senators and one House member.
  • Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who inserted the provision, is defending it as a separation‑of‑powers safeguard and has not committed to bringing the House repeal up for a vote.
  • Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer now says he supports repealing the language, even as some Republicans push to keep or revise it rather than scrap it outright.
  • Sen. Lindsey Graham says he will sue the Justice Department and Verizon, while other targeted Republicans, including Josh Hawley, Bill Hagerty and Rick Scott, say they will not seek taxpayer-funded damages.