When Senators Write Themselves Million-Dollar Checks [View all]

by Austin Weatherford

While Americans endured the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, someone slipped a provision into the emergency funding bill that could send millions of dollars in taxpayer money into the personal bank accounts of eight U.S. senators.

The provision allows senators to sue the federal government for $500,000 per violation if their phone records were seized without notification. And thanks to a retroactivity clause, it applies perfectly to eight specific senators whose records were subpoenaed during an investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune inserted the language into the bill. But we don’t know which senators — if any of the eight who stand to benefit — were involved in drafting it or pushing for its inclusion. That’s exactly what needs investigation.

Why This Violates Senate Ethics Rules

Senate Rule 37 is crystal clear: Lawmakers cannot use their legislative power to advance legislation whose “principal purpose is to further only his [financial] interest... or only the [financial] interest of a limited class of persons” when they’re part of that class.

https://www.brightamerica.org/p/when-senators-write-themselves-million