U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Nov. 20 denied unanimous consent to pass legislation that would repeal a controversial provision of the government funding law enacted on Nov. 12, which allows U.S. senators to potentially collect millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded legal damages.
The provision in question was inserted by the Senate into the Continuing Appropriations Act of 2026, and allows senators “whose Senate data, or the Senate data of whose Senate office, has been acquired, subpoenaed, searched, accessed, or disclosed” in violation of the law, to sue the United States and personally recover a minimum of $500,000 per violation in damages.
