Press Releases

Washington, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernández (D-NM) introduced the No Payola Act alongside 37 co-sponsors in the House, legislation to repeal a provision slipped into the government funding package that would send millions of taxpayer dollars directly into the personal bank accounts of eight U.S. Senators. 

Unlike Republicans—who voted to protect and preserve this secret Senate payout and then introduced a bill to provide political cover for their vote—Rep. Leger Fernández’s No Payola Act doesn’t just repeal the provision, it goes further by requiring any Senator who cashes in before repeal takes effect to return their payout. 

The “payola” provision retroactively entitles certain Senators to receive $500,000 per “violation” for lawful federal subpoenas of their phone records during Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into the attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election and the January 6th insurrection. Because of the definition of “violation” each Senator could receive at least a million dollars if not double that. Senator Graham has already stated he intends to get more than a million—all paid for by the American people. 

“This Senate payola provision is corruption of the highest degree dressed up as legislation,” said Rep. Leger Fernández. “The Senate refused to help working families afford their health insurance premiums but inserted a secret payday for themselves. Corruption is contagious and the carrier of the disease is Trump who has used his Presidency to enrich himself and his family to the tune of at least $500,000 each. These Senators wanted in on the grift. No other American receives a payout of millions if their phone records were reviewed under a lawful grand jury or court order.”

At the Rules committee, Rep. Leger Fernández introduced an amendment to stop these payouts and fought late into the night to block taxpayer-funded rewards for those Senators — while all Republicans on the Rules Committee rejected the amendment. While the best time to have stopped the payout was in Rules, Rep. Leger Fernandez bill would prevent the payouts from going into effect and stop any future handouts. 

Under the law, eight Republican Senators could receive the taxpayer-funded payout:

• Marsha Blackburn - Republican, Tennessee

• Bill Hagerty - Republican, Tennessee

• Lindsey Graham - Republican, South Carolina

• Josh Hawley - Republican,  Missouri

• Dan Sullivan - Republican, Alaska

• Tommy Tuberville - Republican, Alabama

• Ron Johnson - Republican, Wisconsin

• Cynthia Lummis - Republican, Wyoming

Background:

Under existing law, “Senate data” already receives special protection. But the new Senate-added provision vastly expands those protections and creates a private right of action entitling Senators to large cash payouts if their campaign or personal phone records were lawfully subpoenaed. These changes apply retroactively to January 1, 2022—a date chosen specifically to cover Special Counsel Jack Smith’s requests for records from eight Senators who were contacted as part of Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. 

Smith did not wiretap or collect call content; he received only basic call-log metadata for four days—information akin to a phone bill—and did so under a valid grand jury subpoena and a lawful judicial nondisclosure order. His investigation adhered strictly to Department of Justice policy. 

The No Payola Act is cosponsored by Representatives Amo, Ansari, Barragan, Bell, Beyer, Carson, Cohen, Crockett, Dexter, Fields, Fletcher, Frost, Sylvia Garcia, Horsford, Huffman, Kamlager-Dove, Kaptur, Robin Kelly, Landsman, Larsen, Larson, McGovern, Moulton, Neguse, Norton, Olszewski, Quigley, Randall, Salinas, Scanlon, Subramanyam, Swalwell, Thanedar, Titus, Tlaib, Tokuda, and Veasey.

The full text of the bill can be found here.