Read theMandate

Continuing Appropriations, Agriculture, Legislative Branch, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Extensions Act, 2026Section 5 › Proposal

A Senator may sue the United States over Senate data taken without notice

Making continuing appropriations and extensions for fiscal year 2026, and for other purposes, section 5, Sec. 5. Written by .

A Senator may sue the United States over Senate data taken without notice

The document says “canWho acts: SenatorsHow: statuteSec. 5 in the PDF
What the document says

“Any Senator whose Senate data, or the Senate data of whose Senate office, has been acquired, subpoenaed, searched, accessed, or disclosed in violation of this section may bring a civil action against the United States if the violation was committed by an officer, employee, or agent of the United States or of any Federal department or agency.”

Making continuing appropriations and extensions for fiscal year 2026, and for other purposes, Sec. 5

The new subsection (d) added by section 213 of division C creates a private cause of action. A prevailing Senator is awarded, for each instance, the greater of $500,000 in statutory damages or actual damages, plus fees and costs. Sovereign immunity is expressly waived, no officer may assert absolute or qualified immunity, and suit must be brought within five years of actual notice of the violation.

What the document actually says

“Any Senator whose Senate data, or the Senate data of whose Senate office, has been acquired, subpoenaed, searched, accessed, or disclosed in violation of this section may bring a civil action against the United States if the violation was committed by an officer, employee, or agent of the United States or of any Federal department or agency.”

Making continuing appropriations and extensions for fiscal year 2026, and for other purposes, Sec. 5
That sentence, in plain words

A senator may sue the United States. That is if the records were taken the wrong way.

What this is about

The suit is against the government, not the person. If the senator wins, the award is at least five hundred thousand dollars for each count.

No action is recorded against this proposal. That is not evidence that none has been taken, and nobody has yet read it against the record. See what the tracker does not yet cover.

Share this page
How to cite this
  1. The document itself

    Continuing Appropriations, Agriculture, Legislative Branch, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Extensions Act, 2026, Public Law 119-37, sec. 5, 139 Stat. 496 (2025).
    https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-119publ37/html/PLAW-119publ37.htm

  2. This page

    “A Senator may sue the United States over Senate data taken without notice,” Continuing Appropriations, Agriculture, Legislative Branch, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Extensions Act, 2026, section 5, Sec. 5. Read the Mandate, https://readthemandate.org/continuing-appropriations-agriculture-legislative/proposal/sec05-senate-data-civil-action/ (retrieved August 26, 2026).

Cite the document when the claim is about what the document says. Cite this page when the indexing, the wording or the record of what has happened is what is being relied on.

How to Read This Page

The quotation is the document's own words, exactly as printed, and we check the page number against the Act itself before publishing. The paragraph underneath is our summary, not the document's words. So is the plain English version, which is why it sits beside the quotation rather than replacing it.

All proposals in this section →