Kaine, Colleagues Introduce Legislation to Block Senators from Accessing $500,000 Personal Windfalls of Taxpayer Money

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) joined U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), and 25 additional Democratic senators in introducing the Anti-Cash Grab Act, legislation to repeal a provision from the Senate government funding bill that would allow senators to collect $500,000 for each instance when their phone records were obtained in accordance with the law by law enforcement. The provision was quietly added into the funding bill by U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) at the last minute, following reporting that eight Senate Republicans’ phone records were reviewed as part of a Justice Department criminal investigation into President Donald Trump’s involvement in the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

“I’m relieved that last week’s deal has reinstated federal workers who were baselessly fired, ended the pain and chaos caused by President Trump and congressional Republicans’ government shutdown, and secured an upcoming vote to strengthen Americans’ health care,” said Kaine. “But I’m furious that Senate Republicans tucked a ridiculous provision into the legislation to give Republican senators personal windfalls of hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money. That’s unacceptable, and I’m going to work alongside my Democratic colleagues to do everything we can to block that from happening.”

A one-page summary of the bill is here.

The full text of the bill is here.

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