WASHINGTON — In a quietly passed piece of the law that ended the federal government shutdown last week, U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly was the odd man out.

The Pennsylvania Republican — who was among a group of nine lawmakers to find out last month that their phone records had been captured in an FBI investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol — was the only one of those nine not allowed to use a new method for suing the government in the hopes of winning a taxpayer-funded settlement.

The provision applied only to senators, letting them win up to $500,000 for each instance in which their electronic records were grabbed without their knowledge. It was created by and for the Senate, passed reluctantly by the House in order to quickly reopen the government.

But the entire House voted unanimously Wednesday night to repeal what both Democrats and Republicans alike described as an improper payout for a select few people.

U.S. Rep. Joe Morelle, a New York Democrat, called it a "self-serving, self-dealing, one-sided get-rich-quick scheme at the expense of taxpayers" during a debate on the House floor. U.S. Rep. Kevin Kiley, a California Republican, deemed it "a who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire provision created by U.S. senators for themselves." U.S. Rep. John Rose, a Tennessee Republican, said it "reads like a Christmas bonus and that is blatantly unconstitutional."

Amid the backlash, Mr. Kelly voted with all of his colleagues to repeal the measure while not weighing in specifically on the idea of the payouts.

He said in an interview with the Post-Gazette that he didn't know about the creation of the Senate provision until after it happened and that he "never talked to any senators" about the idea.

Asked about the notion of a special settlement procedure as an accountability measure — which was the reason U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, another target of the investigation, said he was supporting it — Mr. Kelly described it as more of a distraction at a time when the House had pressing business after being out of session for nearly two months during the shutdown. He said the Senate Judiciary Committee or another entity might be equipped to handle the issue instead.

"I wasn't part of the conversation," said Mr. Kelly, who represents parts of Venango County and all of Butler, Crawford, Erie, Lawrence and Mercer counties.

On the data collection, Mr. Kelly said in a social media post after it was revealed that it was "a clear abuse of power."

He said in the interview Wednesday that "more than anything," the incident established for him that "there's no such thing as privacy." He also questioned why he was targeted in the investigation.

"I was not surprised it happened," Mr. Kelly said. "I was kind of surprised in the sense of, 'Why me?'"

The answer to that question was not fully explained in the FBI document that congressional Republicans released in October. The document, dated September 2023, showed an agent had conducted a preliminary analysis on the telecommunications records of Kelly and eight senators as part of Arctic Frost, the code name for part of special counsel Jack Smith's look into President Donald Trump's attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Mr. Kelly was involved in legal efforts to object to the certification of Pennsylvania's electoral votes going to Joe Biden. His lawsuit aimed to toss out about 2.6 million ballots cast through the state's mail-in voting law that Mr. Kelly said was unconstitutional.

The congressman later denied that he had any part in U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson's effort to submit a slate of fake electors that would benefit Trump. He said a senior staff member had instead acted without his knowledge in the unsuccessful attempt.

Mr. Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, was also listed on the recently unearthed FBI document, along with U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina; Bill Hagerty, of Tennessee; Josh Hawley, of Missouri; Dan Sullivan, of Alaska; Tommy Tuberville, of Alabama; Cynthia Lumis, of Wyoming; and Marsha Blackburn, of Tennessee. None of the senators were charged in the investigation, which did lead to charges for Trump that were dropped after his election last year.

Mr. Graham is the only one of those Republicans who defended the payout provision and said he would use it.

A strong Trump ally, Mr. Graham told reporters Wednesday he believed his rights were violated and that he wanted to sue both the government and his phone company "to make it hurt as much as I possibly can."

Some critics of the idea have alleged Mr. Graham and others could pull in millions of dollars in a taxpayer settlement because the new law allows for an award of $500,000 for each occurrence of data collection. Mr. Graham said he would "give some of it away" and keep the rest.

"This is not about the money in so much as it's about making sure it doesn't happen again," Mr. Graham said. "I am not going to take this crap anymore. I am going into court, and we'll see what happens. The burden will be on me."

Mr. Graham also pushed back against what he said were critics who claimed the government shouldn't be sued. But some in his own party were saying that he or anyone else could still bring a lawsuit against the government without the special carveout.

"The senators, similar to any other citizen who was wrongfully targeted by the Biden administration, already have a private right of action to sue the federal government, including the FBI and other agencies," U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-W.Y., said while opposing the bill on the floor.

With the House voting to repeal, the Senate would still need to pass the bill to get the payout provision off the books — and Senate leadership has indicated they are unlikely to budge.

"This is something that needed to be addressed," Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters Wednesday before the House vote. "We'll see what the house does and then we'll find out what our colleagues here in the Senate want to do. But one thing I can tell you is there is a high level of interest in addressing the weaponization of the federal government."

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