Sponsor
Adam Schiff
Senator · D-CA
Senator · D-CA
The bill prevents convicted January 6–related actors from collecting certain federal damages and lets states recover improperly paid funds (reducing taxpayer payouts), but it can permanently deny compensation to some individuals, impose repayment burdens, shift enforcement costs to states and courts, and invite legal challenges over retroactivity and due process.
Taxpayers and the federal treasury are less likely to pay damages to people convicted of January 6–related or specified election‑interference misconduct because those perpetrators are barred from collecting certain federal damages, reducing federal payouts and discouraging post‑conviction claims.
State governments can recoup improperly paid federal funds and receive a 25% share to help defray law‑enforcement and justice costs tied to these cases, providing a new source of recovery and partial cost‑coverage for states.
People convicted of the specified offenses — even if later pardoned — are permanently barred from bringing certain federal claims, which can deny lawful compensation for unrelated injuries and raises serious rights and liberties concerns.
Recipients who obtained judgments or settlements between January 20, 2025 and enactment could be required to repay those amounts, creating immediate financial hardship for people who relied on existing judgments or settlements.
The bill shifts the burden of recovering improperly paid funds onto State attorneys general and state courts, increasing enforcement costs for states and adding workload to state court dockets with variable recovery outcomes across states.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Bars federal claims and payments to people convicted of crimes tied to Jan 6 or election disruption, requires return of specified payments and allows state AGs to recover funds plus 25% damages.
Official title: Amend title 28, United States Code, to prevent payouts for insurrectionists.
Introduced June 9, 2026 by Adam Schiff · Last progress June 9, 2026
Bars payment of federal money under the federal tort claims exception to any person convicted (including later pardoned) of a felony or misdemeanor tied to the January 6, 2021 attack, intent to disrupt certification of the 2020 election (including seditious conspiracy), or actions to disrupt or unlawfully influence the 2016 presidential election (including conspiracy to defraud the United States). Claims pending on or filed on or after January 20, 2025 are excluded, and anyone who already received such payments from January 20, 2025 until enactment must return them. State attorneys general can sue to recover returned funds for residents or offenses that occurred in their State, and courts must order repayment plus a 25% damages payment to the State to help cover enforcement costs.