Sponsors (25)
Introduced June 12, 2025 by Richard Blumenthal · Last progress June 12, 2025
The bill gives the federal government clearer, faster authority and procedural checks to intervene (notably to protect voting rights) when civilian authorities fail, but it increases the risk of military involvement in domestic affairs, voter intimidation perceptions, federal–state conflict, and limits on judicial oversight.
Voters in jurisdictions where officials obstruct federal voting-rights laws will have a clear federal enforcement trigger allowing intervention to protect access to voting.
People and entities harmed or fearing harm from domestic deployments get a private right of action and expedited judicial review, increasing legal accountability for use of forces.
Military personnel and state/local governments are protected by a statutory rule that domestic use of the armed forces must be a last resort, limiting arbitrary or routine military intervention in civilian matters.
Voters and local communities could face a visible military presence at elections when federal enforcement is triggered, risking voter intimidation or perceptions of partisan enforcement.
Military personnel, law enforcement, and civilians face a higher risk of militarization of domestic policing because the President may deploy reserve and active forces in defined domestic circumstances.
State and local governments may experience increased federal-state tension and legal conflict because the bill creates a high-stakes federal trigger to intervene against state actors.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Replaces current Insurrection Act provisions with a narrower statute that limits presidential domestic military deployments to high‑threshold insurrection, severe domestic violence, or mass obstructions (including voting-rights obstructions).
Directs a major rewrite of the federal rules for using U.S. Armed Forces inside the United States by replacing the existing Insurrection Act provisions with a new, narrower statutory framework. It lists constitutional authorities for military deployment, declares domestic military use a last resort, and limits presidential authority to three high-threshold situations: (1) an insurrection or rebellion that overwhelms local authorities (with state executive request or if against the U.S.), (2) widespread domestic violence that overwhelms authorities (with state executive or supermajority legislative request), and (3) specified mass obstructions of law — including voting-rights obstructions — that deprive people of constitutional rights or create immediate public-safety threats when civilian law enforcement cannot or will not act. The excerpt establishes policy and the triggering categories but omits detailed operational rules, funding, enforcement mechanics, timing, and the complete statutory language for how deployments would be executed in practice.