WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) joined U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ) in leading 24 Senate colleagues to introduce the Anti-Cash Grab Act, legislation that will repeal a provision — quietly added into the Senate government funding bill by U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) at the last minute — that allows Senators to collect $500,000 for every phone record lawfully obtained.
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“After shutting down the government, Senate Republicans took further advantage of the chaos they created to sneak in a $500,000 taxpayer-funded payout for Senators into the government funding deal. While working families were worrying about how to put food on the table, Senate Republicans were scheming about how to personally enrich themselves,” Durbin said. “The Anti-Cash Grab Act would nullify this provision in the government funding deal and prevent lawmakers from attempting to line their own pockets with taxpayer dollars.”
“While Republicans refused to lift a finger to stop health care premiums from skyrocketing, provide SNAP benefits to hungry children or do anything that actually improves people’s lives, they had no problem sneaking themselves a bonus on the taxpayers’ dime,” Duckworth said. “Republicans’ shameless decision to line their own pockets while Illinois families struggle to make ends meet is despicable and un-American. Not shaking down the American taxpayer shouldn’t be a partisan issue, which is why I’m proud to join Senator Durbin and our colleagues in urging the Senate to pass the Anti-Cash Grab Act to protect our tax dollars from political games.”
The introduction of the Anti-Cash Grab Act comes after Durbin has repeatedly called for former Special Counsel Jack Smith to testify publicly before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the “Arctic Frost” investigation, in which the phone records of eight Republican Senators were subpoenaed as part of an inquiry into President Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election. On October 30, Durbin led all Senate Judiciary Democrats in sending a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) calling on him to allow Smith to testify and urged Chairman Grassley to request that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) release Volume II of the unredacted “Final Report of the Special Counsel’s Investigations and Prosecutions,” which was submitted to then-Attorney General Merrick Garland in January 2025.
In addition to Durbin, Heinrich, and Kelly, the Anti-Cash Grab Act is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Chris Coons (D-DE), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Angus King (I-ME), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Patty Murray (D-WA), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Gary Peters (D-MI), Jack Reed (D-RI), Brain Schatz (D-HI), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Peter Welch (D-VT), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), and Ron Wyden (D-OR).
