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Senate Republicans emerged from their weekly lunch Wednesday largely without consensus on how to amend a politically toxic provision that could award some lawmakers hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages for having their electronic records seized without their knowledge. The closed-door conversation about the legislative language quietly inserted in last week’s government funding package comes hours before the House is poised to vote to repeal the provision altogether. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) — who has indicated he wants to sue for a significant monetary reward — proposed a change to expand the class of people who would be protected under the bill from senators to “any private group” singled out by Smith’s investigation. “I am a big believer if the government harms you, you should be able to hold the government accountable,” Graham, one of at least eight GOP senators who had their phone data seized as part of Biden-era special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation, said in a brief interview. It’s not clear whether there’s momentum for Graham’s proposal. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said he was open to discussions, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters additional talks were necessary. “We had a good conversation about that and we’ll have I’m sure a more fulsome conversation ... there is a high level of interest in addressing the weaponization of the federal government,” Thune said. “We’ll see what the House does and then we’ll find out what our colleagues here in the Senate want to do.” Behind the scenes, Thune got an earful from GOP senators in the lunch who were upset about being left out of the loop about the provision’s inclusion in last week’s shutdown-ending deal, according to one attendee granted anonymity to describe private discussions. “Today was a bad meeting,” the person added, pointing to typical leadership allies like Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) among those who are upset. Many lawmakers have argued the language is effectively an unseemly payout to Republican senators, who were enraged by revelations that Smith subpoenaed their phone records without notification as part of his probe into President Donald Trump’s efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 election. House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan has instead championed a bill freshly advanced out of his committee that would broadly create stricter rules for non-disclosure orders when federal law enforcement seeks certain information. But Graham argued that solution would not “provide justice to the people that were wronged” and said the $500,000 minimum reward was just a floor “designed to deter people from issuing invalid subpoenas.” “I would not even begin to settle my claim for $500,000,” he said. “I’m going to pick a number that I think would deter misconduct in the future.” Graham did say he would sue for less than Trump’s $230 million claim against the Justice Department for the federal investigations into the president. Still, his proposal did not seem to address his peers’ concerns over the provision’s retroactivity — which would extend the protections to the Republican senators whose records were obtained as part of Smith’s investigation. “People that are wronged by government should be able to hold the government accountable,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.). But “it shouldn’t have a specific lookback.” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), who was not in the weekly lunch, said the provision’s retroactivity was a nonstarter for him.