Sponsors (6)
The bill removes pension benefits from Members convicted or determined to have committed specified misconduct—creating stronger internal accountability and reducing taxpayer-funded benefits—while risking financial harm to survivors, raising due-process questions, and adding administrative complexity.
Members of Congress convicted of listed crimes will lose their annuity and retired pay, reducing taxpayer-funded benefits for individuals found guilty of serious misconduct.
Houses of Congress (House and Senate) can trigger pension bans when they find a Member engaged in specified misconduct (including sexual conduct with a supervised employee), giving internal enforcement mechanisms real consequences.
Survivors and beneficiaries of Members who commit listed offenses will be barred from receiving pension benefits tied to that Member's service, reinforcing accountability by ensuring benefits do not continue after serious misconduct.
Survivors and beneficiaries of convicted Members may lose retirement income even if they had no role in the Member's misconduct, shifting financial hardship onto dependents.
Victims of past misconduct may be excluded from relief because the ban applies only to convictions or determinations made after the law's effective date, leaving some past offenses unaddressed.
Members of Congress could face pension denial based on House or Senate determinations rather than judicial findings, raising due-process and rights concerns if internal procedures differ from court standards.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Denies congressional annuity and retired pay to Members (and their survivors) convicted of specified serious crimes or found to have engaged in certain sexual misconduct, effective prospectively.
Introduced April 21, 2026 by Suhas Subramanyam · Last progress April 21, 2026
Denies annuity and retired pay to Members of Congress (and their survivors/beneficiaries) when the Member is convicted of, or a relevant body determines they committed, certain serious crimes or specified misconduct. Covered offenses include sexual crimes (rape, sexual assault, sexual abuse of a minor, certain sex‑trafficking offenses), crimes of violence, bribery and other Title 18 offenses (including fraud, embezzlement, election crimes, and obstruction), and violations of the Federal Election Campaign Act; a House finding that a Member engaged in sexual conduct with a supervised employee also triggers the ban. The rule takes effect at the start of the next Congress after enactment and applies only to convictions, determinations, and terminations that occur after that effective date.