Sponsor
Pat Fallon
Representative · R-TX
Representative · R-TX
Official title: To amend title 18, United States Code, to decrease the sum of damage or attempted damage to property of the United States, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 2, 2026 by Pat Fallon · Last progress July 2, 2026
The bill makes a textual change to §1361 that imposes short-term administrative work for DOJ but risks creating legal ambiguity that could lead to increased litigation and delays in criminal charging and adjudication.
No clear benefits were identified in the provided sections.
Defendants, courts, and defense attorneys could face confusion or altered legal meaning from the textual substitution in §1361, increasing litigation, delays, and legal costs for people charged under the statute.
Federal prosecutors and DOJ personnel will need to update charging documents, guidance, and internal materials to reflect the textual change, creating a short-term administrative burden for federal law‑enforcement and regulatory staff.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Replaces every occurrence of the substring "striking,000" in 18 U.S.C. § 1361 with the word "inserting."
Replaces every occurrence of the substring "striking,000" in 18 U.S.C. § 1361 with the word "inserting." The change is a literal textual substitution that alters the statute's wording wherever that exact sequence appears. The bill does not add new penalties or create new programs; it only instructs a specific textual edit to the existing federal criminal statute that covers damage to government property. The practical effect depends on how courts, prosecutors, and defense lawyers interpret the revised language against the statute's surrounding text and legislative intent.