Sponsors (55)
Official title: To provide compensation to law enforcement officers who defended the United States Capitol during the events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, and for other purposes.
Introduced May 13, 2026 by Jamie Ben Raskin · Last progress May 13, 2026
The bill creates a fast, centralized compensation program that delivers substantial and timely payments (including mental‑health recognition) to qualifying January 6 responders and their families, while shifting significant fiscal costs to taxpayers and constraining judicial review, creating administrative burdens and eligibility disputes.
Law enforcement officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on January 6 (and their survivors) will receive direct financial compensation for economic and noneconomic harms, including minimum death awards and survivor payments.
Claimants gain a centralized, time‑limited administrative process (Special Master, promulgated rules, counsel and evidentiary rights) designed to speed determinations and deliver payments faster than litigation.
The program prevents duplicative recoveries and enables the government to seek reimbursement from third parties and report prior settlements, which reduces double payments and improves fiscal accountability.
Taxpayers will bear substantial fiscal costs from guaranteed large death awards, uniform payouts, open-ended authorizations and immediate payment obligations, which could increase appropriations demands or deficits.
Claimants lose meaningful judicial review and face tight filing deadlines (final, non-reviewable administrative determinations and a short claims window), which can permanently bar some eligible victims from court or appeal.
Concentrating rulemaking and decision authority in the Attorney General/Special Master, combined with rushed rule deadlines and strict payment timetables, risks administrative bottlenecks, hurried or unclear rules, and operational strain that could delay or complicate payments.
Based on analysis of 10 sections of legislative text.
Establishes a Special Master–administered compensation program to pay monetary awards (including a $4,975,000 statutory minimum death benefit and a uniform supplemental payment) to officers who defended the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Provides a federal compensation program, run by a Special Master appointed by the Attorney General, to pay money to law enforcement officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 (and to representatives of officers who died). It creates procedures and deadlines for filing and deciding claims, requires final written determinations, authorizes payments (including a uniform supplemental payment to all qualifying defenders), sets a statutory minimum death benefit of $4,975,000, allows the United States to recover payments from third parties, and obligates the federal government to make the required payments.