The provision, tucked into a measure to fund the legislative branch, appears to immediately allow for eight G.O.P. senators to sue the government over their phone records being seized in the course of the investigation by Jack Smith, the former special counsel, into the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The provision would make it a violation of the law to not notify a senator if their phone records or other metadata was taken from a service provider like a phone company. There are some exceptions, such as 60-day delays in notification if the senator is considered the target of an investigation.

The language of the bill states that “any senator whose Senate data, or the Senate data of whose Senate office, has been acquired, subpoenaed, searched, accessed, or disclosed in violation of this section may bring a civil action against the United States if the violation was committed by an officer, employee, or agent of the United States or of any federal department or agency.”

Because the provision is retroactive to 2022, it would appear to make eligible the eight lawmakers whose phone records were subpoenaed by investigators for Mr. Smith as he examined efforts by Donald J. Trump to obstruct the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Each violation would be worth at least $500,000 in any legal claim, according to the bill language. The bill would also sharply limit the way the government could resist such a claim, taking away any government claims of qualified or sovereign immunity to fight a lawsuit over the issue......

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, one of the eight eligible GOP senators, nevertheless boasted about his intention to take advantage of the opportunity Republicans created for themselves. The Washington Post reported:

Graham, who had his phone records seized, said Wednesday that he would ‘definitely’ sue under the law. ‘And if you think I’m going to settle this thing for a million dollars? No,’ Graham told reporters in South Carolina. ‘I want to make it so painful no one ever does this again.’

He did not appear to be kidding.

Link to tweet

But before Graham’s lawyers head to a nearby courthouse, they should probably take note of the fact that a whole lot of House members — including plenty of Republicans — aren’t pleased about the Senate GOP’s gambit, and they’re eager to do something about it. Roll Call reported:

Speaker Mike Johnson announced plans to pursue legislation next week that would repeal a Senate provision in a major spending package that incensed House Republicans and threatened to prolong the partial government shutdown. The must-pass spending measure drew eleventh-hour objections from House members of both parties after the discovery in recent days of a provision that would allow senators to sue for at least $500,000 each when federal investigators search their phone records in a judicially sanctioned probe without notifying them.

In comments to reporters this week, the House speaker conceded the Senate’s provision “was a really bad look,” which his chamber intends to “fix” in a standalone bill.