Turns out Thune really, REALLY wants that $500,000, calling it a "Senate-Specific Solution." SOLUTION, not "GRIFT."
The overwhelming House vote to repeal a provision allowing senators to sue if the Justice Department obtained their phone records without notice may ultimately fall flat as major obstacles in the Senate stand in the way of the change.
The House voted late Wednesday to scrap the “Arctic Frost” provision, which snuck its way into the final deal to end the shutdown last week and angered scores of lower chamber lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. The provision allows senators — but not House members — to sue the Justice Department and be awarded up to $500,000 damages for each “instance” of data collection. It is retroactive to 2022, so senators can sue over former special counsel Jack Smith’s probe into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Plenty of senators agree with their House counterparts, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has passionately defended the measure and shown little appetite to hold a vote on undoing it.
“That was a Senate-specific solution. The statute that was violated applied only to the Senate, which is why we addressed it the way that we did,” he told reporters at his weekly press conference. “We strengthened that provision when it comes to allowing a federal government agency — the Justice Department, in this case — to collect information, private information, on individual senators. We think that is a violation of powers under the Constitution.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/house-push-overturn-500-000-110000620.html
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