Sponsors (7)
The bill increases presidential accountability and the authenticity of signed instruments by requiring the President's personal signature, but it risks delays, continuity gaps, retroactive invalidation of past actions, and increased litigation and administrative costs.
All Americans (taxpayers, federal employees): Requires the President personally sign laws and key documents and bans autopen/automatic signing devices, clarifying who legally bears responsibility and reducing disputes over authenticity of major instruments.
Taxpayers and federal employees: Prevents enforcement of executive actions or signed bills that did not follow the statute's required signing procedures, reinforcing rule-of-law norms and accountability for how executive instruments are executed.
People and entities who relied on past executive orders, pardons, or similar instruments: May lose benefits or legal protections retroactively if those instruments are found to have violated the statute's signing procedures.
State governments, courts, and taxpayers: Creates legal uncertainty and likely litigation over which past instruments are void for failing to meet the signing rules, imposing costs on courts and parties.
Federal employees and taxpayers: Limits the President's ability to delegate routine signing tasks and increases operational/administrative burden on White House staff to coordinate the President's personal signatures, slowing routine workflows.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Bans non‑President and automatic-device signing of enacted bills, Executive orders, pardons, and commutations, and voids any such instruments signed in violation (retroactive).
Prohibits anyone other than the President from lawfully signing an engrossed bill, Executive order, pardon, or commutation and bans use of automatic signing devices (including autopens) for those instruments. It also declares void any such instrument that was signed in violation of that rule, whether signed before or after the Act takes effect.
Introduced July 15, 2025 by Addison P. McDowell · Last progress July 15, 2025