Did Republican senators amend funding bill to allow them to sue government over Jan. 6 investigations?

Claim:

Senate Republicans added an amendment to the continuing resolution passed in the Senate in November 2025 allowing them to sue the government for $500,000 over the investigations into the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Rating:

Context

The provision actually allows senators to sue the government for at least $500,000 for each device searched in violation of the amendment and applies retroactively to allow the eight Republican senators whose data was searched in the Jan. 6 investigations to take advantage of it.

In November 2025, the U.S. Senate passed a funding bill and sent it back to the House of Representatives in an effort to end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. The bill, which overcame the filibuster with the support of 52 Republicans and eight Democrats, amended the original continuing resolution — a temporary extension of government funding at current levels — passed by House Republicans to also include full funding for agriculture, veterans affairs and the legislative branch.

Following the bill’s passage, popular social media posts claimed Senate Republicans snuck into the funding bill a $500,000 “payday” for themselves by allowing themselves to sue the government over the Jan. 6 investigations. The claim spread widely on Facebook (archived), as well as over (archived) Instagram (archived), Reddit (archived) and X (archived).

It’s true that Senate Republicans amended the funding bill to allow senators whose data was searched as part of the FBI’s Jan. 6 riot investigations — all Republicans — to sue the government for at least $500,000.

The full text of the Senate’s amended funding bill can be found on Congress’ website as H.R.5371 – Continuing Appropriations, Agriculture, Legislative Branch, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Extensions Act, 2026. The specific provision allowing for senators to sue is in the part of the bill funding the legislative branch, under a subhead titled “Requiring Senate notification for disclosure of Senate data.”

That provision requires senators to receive notice of any legal process that seeks disclosure of a senator’s electronic data, with an exception allowing courts to order the delay of notice for 60 days if the senator is the target of a criminal investigation. 

If “an officer, employee, or agent of the United States or of any Federal department or agency” violates this provision, the bill would allow the senator to sue the U.S. government over it. In the event the senator wins the lawsuit, they’ll be awarded the greater of $500,000 or the amount of actual damage “for each instance of a violation of this section,” “reasonable attorney’s fees and costs of litigation” and “such injunctive or declaratory relief as may be appropriate.” Each “device, account, record, or communication channel subject to collection” would count as an “instance of a violation.”

In the last few paragraphs of the provision, the bill states that it is retroactive to any violation that has occurred since Jan. 1, 2022.

On Oct. 6, 2025, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary announced that in 2023, the FBI “targeted eight Republican senators’ personal cell phones for ‘tolling data'” as part of its investigation into the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The eight senators, all Republicans, were Marsha Blackburn, Lindsay Graham, Bill Hagerty, Josh Hawley, Ron Johnson, Cynthia Lummis, Dan Sullivan and Tommy Tuberville. The data of one House member, Rep. Mike Kelly, was also targeted, according to Senate Judiciary Committee.

Because their data was obtained without notification in 2023, the eight senators would be able to sue the U.S. government for at least $500,000 for each device targeted thanks to bill applying the new provision retroactively.

The provision was introduced on Nov. 10, the same day the Senate passed its version of the bill, as part of the amendment revealing the Senate’s changes to the House’s original funding bill. It was submitted by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, however; Politico reported that the provision’s language “came directly from Senate Majority Leader John Thune.”

The House’s version of the bill did not include any such provision in its text.

The requirement that senators be notified if their data is collected for an investigation has been a part of U.S. code since 2005, although it previously did not grant senators the ability to sue the U.S. government over any violations.