Sponsors (3)
Official title: Preserve the democratic republic of the United States from the overreach of authoritarian tactics.
Introduced August 4, 2026 by Jeff Merkley · Last progress August 4, 2026
The bill strengthens oversight, ethics, civil‑liberties protections (especially for children, immigrants, and election integrity) and increases transparency, but does so by adding significant compliance, staffing, and litigation costs and by constraining executive flexibility and some law‑enforcement tools.
Noncitizen children in federal custody (and their families) will receive stronger, specific protections — faster medical screening and emergency transport, improved hygiene and nutrition standards, limits on detention length and use of influx facilities, trauma‑informed care, legal representation, and new complaint/oversight channels.
Federal oversight and ethics are strengthened: greater independence and clearer statutory protections for inspectors general, creation of an EOP Inspector General, expanded ethics/conflict‑of‑interest rules for top officials, and an independent Ombudsperson to investigate custody complaints.
Immigrants and residents are protected from ICE/CBP biometric identification and tracking, with private and state enforcement mechanisms that increase accountability for unlawful surveillance.
Taxpayers, DHS/HHS, and facility operators will face substantially higher costs and ongoing operational burdens to meet new staffing, medical, facility, training, and certification requirements for children in custody.
The bill constrains executive flexibility across several areas — narrowing eligible IG nominees, restricting agency reorganizations and unilateral rescissions of appropriated funds, tightening presidential deployment authority — which may slow appointments, reorganization, fund reallocation, and rapid federal responses.
Expanding private causes of action (for biometric surveillance violations, AI election harms, and some disclosures) and waiving some immunities increases litigation risk and potential federal payouts and appropriations to cover damages and defense costs.
Based on analysis of 14 sections of legislative text.
Bans distant biometric surveillance by ICE/CBP, creates an independent Ombudsperson and care standards for unaccompanied children, tightens agency RIF/reorg rules, expands ethics rules, mandates ID/reporting for federal crowd control, and restricts certain AI election disinformation.
Prohibits ICE/CBP and deputized immigration officers from using distant biometric surveillance (facial recognition, gait, voice) in the United States, requires deletion of existing biometric data, and creates private and state causes of action for violations. Establishes a new independent Ombudsperson and operational standards for care of unaccompanied noncitizen children, mandates nondiscrimination and child‑centered services, and sets facility, medical, hygiene, sleep, nutrition, and recreation requirements for CBP facilities that hold children. Separately, strengthens ethics and conflict‑of‑interest rules (including new coverage and limits for the President and Vice President), bars certain executive rescissions and an East Wing construction unless Congress authorizes it, restricts agency reorganizations and requires detailed justifications for reductions in force, requires identification and public reporting for federal personnel in domestic crowd‑control operations, adds viewpoint protections for FCC licensing, restricts certain prediction‑market activity and images on recreation passes, requires White House disclosure of certain DOJ directives, and creates a federal prohibition on distributing some AI‑generated false election media that intends to suppress voting or intimidate election officials.