{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.baldwin.senate.gov/news/press-releases/baldwin-colleagues-introduce-bill-to-repeal-law-that-lets-senators-pocket-500000-for-being-lawfully-investigated", "Baldwin, Colleagues Introduce Bill to Repeal Law that Lets Senators Pocket $500,000 for Being Lawfully Investigated", "2025-11-18", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "Senate", "WI", "Tammy Baldwin", "B001230", "www.baldwin.senate.gov", "baldwin", "https://www.baldwin.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and her colleagues introduced the Anti-Cash Grab Act, legislation that will repeal a provision \u2014 quietly added into the Senate government funding bill by Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) at the last minute \u2014 that allows senators to collect $500,000 for every phone record lawfully obtained. Senator Baldwin voted against the government funding bill that contained this measure.\n\n\u201cWhile 22 million Americans are being told there\u2019s no money to stop their skyrocketing premiums, Republicans greenlit a taxpayer-funded payday for themselves,\u201d said Senator Baldwin. \u201cAmericans believe no one is above the law, and if you are part of an attempt to overturn a fair and free election, you should be investigated \u2013 not paid $500,000. I voted against the bill that had this tucked in, and we need to repeal this self-dealing law as soon as possible.\u201d\n\nThe Anti-Cash Grab Act would undo the unprecedented attempt by Senate Republicans to line their own pockets at the expense of American taxpayers. This bill would strike a provision, buried deep within the 394-page Republican government funding bill, that allows certain Republican Senators to collect $500,000 for each instance in which their phone records were lawfully acquired in accordance with due process requirements at the time of lawful investigations.\n\nThe provision was put in the bill after it was revealed that, in the FBI\u2019s investigation into President Donald Trump\u2019s effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election, eight Senators had their phone records lawfully analyzed due to their part in the President\u2019s scheme.\n\nThe Anti-Cash Grab Act is led by Senators Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and co-sponsored by Senator Baldwin and 25 of their colleagues.\n\nA one-page summary of the bill is here. The full text of the bill is here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.baldwin.senate.gov/news/press-releases/baldwin-colleagues-introduce-bill-to-repeal-law-that-lets-senators-pocket-500000-for-being-lawfully-investigated"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9704530239105225, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}