Sponsors (7)
The bill strengthens federal penalties and prosecutorial tools to deter and punish vehicle-as-weapon attacks and aid victims, but does so by imposing mandatory minimums that raise incarceration and fiscal costs and risk ensnaring less culpable conduct.
Victims of vehicle-based assaults: gain stronger federal penalties and potentially greater accountability and deterrence when vehicles are used as weapons.
Federal prosecutors and law enforcement: receive clearer sentencing tools and federal authority to pursue cases where motor vehicles are used as weapons, potentially improving cross-jurisdictional public safety enforcement.
People convicted of using a vehicle as a weapon: face mandatory minimum prison terms (5–10 years), reducing judicial discretion and likely increasing incarceration rates.
Defendants and less culpable offenders: a broad statutory definition risks sweeping in misdemeanor or lower-culpability conduct, exposing such people to disproportionately severe penalties.
Taxpayers and state/federal correctional budgets: longer mandatory sentences are likely to increase incarceration costs and fiscal burden on taxpayers.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Introduced January 15, 2026 by John Cornyn · Last progress January 15, 2026
Amends the federal criminal statute that covers assaults on certain federal officers and employees to raise maximum penalties and add mandatory minimum prison terms when a motor vehicle is used as the weapon. The bill makes the basic offense punishable by fines or up to 40 years in prison when a deadly or dangerous weapon (including a defective weapon intended to cause death or danger) is used or bodily injury is inflicted, and it establishes set minimum prison terms of 5, 7, or 10 years depending on the level of bodily injury caused by use of a motor vehicle. The change applies to prosecutions under the existing federal assault provision and would increase potential prison time for defendants who use cars or other motor vehicles as weapons, while creating new mandatory minimums keyed to the severity of injury.