Sponsors (3)
The bill strengthens and federalizes criminal tools and penalties aimed at deterring ATM-targeted theft and related violence—improving protections for ATM users and enabling tougher prosecutions—at the cost of expanding federal involvement, raising incarceration and enforcement costs, creating potential sentencing disparities, and introducing interpretive uncertainty in robbery law.
People who use or service ATMs (customers, cash-replenishers, technicians) gain stronger federal criminal penalties and higher maximum sentences for ATM-related robbery/violent incidents, which is likely to deter robberies and extortion at ATMs and increase safety at machines.
Depository institutions, ATM owners/operators, and DOJ prosecutors get clearer federal protections for ATM property and equipment and stronger federal offense tools, enabling more robust federal prosecutions of ATM-targeted theft and related violent crimes.
Criminalizing receipt or possession of ATM-derived property reduces market incentives for trafficking stolen ATM cash or equipment, which can suppress organized resale channels and financial losses to banks.
Individuals convicted under the new federal ATM offenses face substantially longer prison terms (up to decades), increasing incarceration costs borne by taxpayers and expanding long-term correctional expenditures.
Expanding federal criminal jurisdiction over a broad set of ATM devices (including network-linked and sponsored terminals) and strengthening federal offenses may shift prosecutions from state to federal courts and raise DOJ/federal-court caseloads and compliance burdens for banks and vendors.
Tiered monetary thresholds in the statute (e.g., distinctions above vs. at/under $1,000) can produce uneven sentencing outcomes where similar conduct yields very different penalties based mainly on amounts taken, creating potential fairness and proportionality concerns.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Creates a new federal statute criminalizing ATM robbery/tampering with tiered penalties, raises assault/homicide penalties tied to ATM crimes, and amends an existing bank-robbery phrase to "force or violence."
Introduced February 5, 2026 by Rafael Edward Cruz · Last progress February 5, 2026
Creates a new federal offense specifically for robbery, extortion, tampering, and related crimes involving automated teller machines (ATMs), defines covered machines and covered victims (users, servicers, owners, and contractors), and sets tiered prison terms for property and violent offenses tied to ATMs. Also amends an existing bank-robbery provision by changing the phrase "force and violence" to "force or violence" and inserting additional, unspecified text into that subsection.