A bill, similar to one backed by Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-NM, that would prevent senators from receiving $500,000 payments to Republican senators whose phone logs were obtained without their knowledge during a probe into the Jan 6, 2021, attack, has hit a roadblock.
On Thursday, the Senate sought to take up the measure that unanimously passed the U.S. House of Representatives, but Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, objected, according to a press release from Heinrich.
The bill applies retroactively to Graham and seven other senators whose phone records were subpoenaed as part of the Jan. 6 investigation, known as the Arctic Frost Investigation.
The bill would repeal a section of the stopgap government funding measure recently passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump, which allows senators to sue for payments of up to $500,000 per incident if their phone records are accessed or subpoenaed without their knowledge
Heinrich on Thursday spoke on the floor in favor of the House bill, which mirrors his own Anti-Cash Grab Act that was co-sponsored by Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-NM. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, D-NM, introduced similar legislation in the House.
“The truth is that a country where a sitting elected official can get half a million dollars or more, in one go, while people around the country see their monthly costs rise by hundreds or thousands of dollars, that is a country that is not serving the people,” Heinrich said.
In a social media post, Graham defended the provision that allows him and other Republicans to sue, calling the Arctic Frost Investigation” the most brazen effort to weaponize the law.”
Heinrich and other detractors of the Arctic Frost provision note that the phone information was acquired lawfully and as part of a grand jury investigation.