Rep. Tom Cole

House Republicans were blindsided by a provision in the government funding bill that would allow their Senate colleagues to sue for $500,000 each when federal agents search their phone records, The Daily Beast reports.

The provision only applies to Senate Republicans, not those in the House of Representatives. And those House members are incensed.

Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) says he was “surprised” by the provision. “Did I know about this provision in the bill? No,” Cole says. “Do I think it needs to be in a funding bill? Not particularly.”

The provision, The Daily Beast explains, appears aimed squarely at special counsel Jack Smith’s team, "which lawmakers claim secretly seized their phone data as part of 'Arctic Frost'" — the investigation into President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The provision would make it a legal violation if a senator’s data is accessed without notice, though a delay is allowed if the senator is a target of a criminal probe. It also allows successful plaintiffs to recover attorney’s fees and other litigation costs, The Daily Beast explains.

House Republicans say they were kept in the dark about senators' motives.

“I don’t think that Senate leadership shared with the leadership of the House what they were doing," Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA) says.