{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/tuberville-introduces-bill-to-stop-future-corruption-at-doj/", "Tuberville\u00a0Introduces Bill to Stop Future Corruption at DOJ", "2026-07-14", "2026", "2026-07", "Republican", "Senate", "AL", "Tommy Tuberville", "T000278", "www.tuberville.senate.gov", "tuberville", "https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2014 Today, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) was joined by Senators Ted Budd (R-NC), Ron Johnson (R-WI), and Mike Lee (R-UT) in reintroducing the Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act, which would prevent future Democratic administrations from using federal settlement agreements as a backdoor funding source for liberal activist groups.\n\nThe Obama administration used settlement agreements to steer money to favored outside organizations instead of to victims or the U.S. Treasury. President Trump\u2019s Department of Justice shut down the practice in 2017 and again in 2025 after the Biden administration brought it back. But without an act of Congress, a future administration could revive the policy with the stroke of a pen.\n\nSen. Tuberville\u2019s bill would permanently ban the practice and ensure that settlement funds compensate victims, directly remedy the harm caused, or are returned to the U.S. Treasury.\n\n\u201cWe are one election away from these slush funds coming back, and everybody in Washington knows it,\u201d said Senator Tuberville. \u201cThe Biden administration proved that the minute Democrats get the keys, they will reopen the loophole and start steering settlement money to their activist friends. I have fought this corruption since my first year in the Senate. Congress needs to put this ban into black-letter law so no future administration can bring this scheme back.\u201d\n\nBACKGROUND:\n\nThe Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act would prohibit settling parties in a federal dispute from reducing their punishments by making \u201cdonations\u201d to outside organizations. This bill would end the executive overreach of picking special interest groups to benefit from a settlement. For example, under President Obama\u2019s Department of Justice (DOJ), settling parties were forced to pay a portion of their settlement obligations, under the guise of \u201cdonations,\u201d to outside groups of the Department\u2019s choosing that overwhelmingly pushed a partisan agenda. This practice turned federal settlements into liberal slush funds.\n\nMORE:\n\nNew Tuberville Bill Stops the Government from Directing Funds to Partisan Organizations\n\nTuberville: Congress Must Stop the Federal Government\u2019s Slush Fund for Partisan Groups\n\nTuberville Joins Fox Business to Discuss His New Legislation to Stop Federal Slush Funds\n\nTuberville, Colleagues Call on AG Garland to Stop Sending Federal Funds to Partisan Organizations\n\nTuberville, Gooden Introduce Bill to Stop DOJ Officials from Funding Partisan Priorities with Corporate Settlement Dollars\n\nTuberville Bill to Stop DOJ Corruption Passes House\n\nSen. Tommy Tuberville Proposes Bill to End \u2018Slush Fund\u2019 Settlements to Far-Left Groups\n\nGooden, Tuberville Introduce Bill to Block \u2018Slush Fund\u2019 Payouts to Activist Groups in Legal Settlements\n\nSenator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans\u2019 Affairs, HELP and Aging Committees.\n\n###", 1, "2026-07-15T07:12:08Z", "2026-07-15T07:13:45Z"]], "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.tuberville.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/tuberville-introduces-bill-to-stop-future-corruption-at-doj/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.2410981580615044, "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"}