By David Morgan and Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON, Jan 30 (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham held up a bipartisan deal to avert a government shutdown on Friday as he sought to restore a widely panned provision that would allow him to sue the government for damages.
Several lawmakers have blocked the Senate from acting on the funding deal, which would ensure agencies like the Pentagon and the Department of Labor would keep operating when current funding expires at midnight. But he was the most visible.
Speaking on the Senate floor on Friday, Graham said he would prevent the Senate from voting unless it also voted on a provision that would let him and other lawmakers whose phone records were seized during the Biden administration’s investigation of the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol sue the Justice Department for damages.
The provision was tucked into a massive spending bill last fall and drew widespread condemnation from Republicans and Democrats alike as an enrichment scheme for public officials.
U.S. law generally does not allow individuals to sue the government for damages except in limited circumstances, such as when they were injured by federal employees or had land taken for public use.
House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said he was shocked and angered by the provision, and the House included its repeal in the massive spending bill that the Senate is now considering.
Graham expressed frustration with those changes. “You jammed me. Speaker Johnson, I won’t forget this,” he said in remarks on the Senate floor.
Graham once vowed to sue for “millions of dollars,” but Republican leaders say any proceeds would go back to the government and not benefit lawmakers personally. Graham said Friday he would broaden the provision so outside groups targeted by the January 6 probe could also sue for damages.
Graham also said he was demanding a commitment to vote on a provision that would require local governments to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
It was not clear how long Graham’s objections would hold up the spending deal, and other lawmakers predicted his effort to restore the provision would ultimately fail.
Voters “may remember that more than a failed procedural vote,” Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina told reporters.
Separately, President Donald Trump on Thursday sued the Internal Revenue Service and Treasury Department for $10 billion over the disclosure of his tax returns to the media in 2019 and 2020.
(Reporting by David Morgan and Richard Cowan; editing by Andy Sullivan and Cynthia Osterman)
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