S3652-119

In Committee

Welfare Fraud Deterrence and Recovery Act of 2026

119th Congress Introduced Jan 15, 2026

Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.

Summary

What This Bill Does

This bill, Welfare Fraud Deterrence and Recovery Act of 2026, changes federal law or congressional policy affecting law enforcement, courts, victims, and regulated public-safety actors. The main policy domain is Criminal Justice, Foreign Policy, Immigration.

Who Benefits and How

law enforcement, courts, victims, and regulated public-safety actors may benefit from new authority, funding, eligibility, regulatory clarity, or reduced risk created by the bill.

Who Bears the Burden and How

federal implementing agencies, law enforcement, courts, victims, and regulated public-safety actors may take on implementation duties, reporting obligations, compliance costs, or oversight responsibilities.

Key Provisions

  • Section S1: 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Welfare Fraud Deterrence and Recovery Act of 2026.
  • Section id6a2c1692a93a4327af45560def052bb2: 2. Enhanced criminal penalties for welfare fraud Section 1001 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: (d) (1) In this...
  • Section id906af7b8df5d4870aa50e38f4e7bdc76: 3. Immigration consequences for fraud conviction Section 212(a)(10) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(10)) is amended by adding at the...
  • Section id7f00bf3fb9b74b4b93344c05ca0e3319: 4. Welfare fraud recovery task force and civil actions for welfare fraud In this section— the term Federal welfare program— means a program providing a Federal...

Evidence Chain:

This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.

At a Glance

What This Bill Does

This bill, Welfare Fraud Deterrence and Recovery Act of 2026, changes federal law or congressional policy affecting law enforcement, courts, victims, and regulated public-safety actors.

Key Policy Areas

Criminal Justice, Foreign Policy, Immigration

Primary Purpose

This bill, Welfare Fraud Deterrence and Recovery Act of 2026, changes federal law or congressional policy affecting law enforcement, courts, victims, and regulated public-safety actors.

Policy Domains

Criminal Justice Foreign Policy Immigration

Whole bill

Identified Gains
  • law enforcement, courts, victims, and regulated public-safety actors
Model: codex-gpt-5 | Version: bill_summary_v2 | Source: is
law enforcement, courts, victims, and regulated public-safety actors:
Identified Costs
  • federal implementing agencies
  • law enforcement, courts, victims, and regulated public-safety actors
Model: codex-gpt-5 | Version: bill_summary_v2 | Source: is
federal implementing agencies:
law enforcement, courts, victims, and regulated public-safety actors:

Legislative Progress

In Committee
Introduced Committee Passed
Jan 15, 2026

Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

Jan 15, 2026

Introduced in Senate

Jan 15, 2026

Mr. Cotton introduced the following bill; which was read twice …

Impact analysis is available but no clear stakeholder effects identified. View clause-level analysis →

Bill Structure & Actor Mappings

Who is "The Secretary" in each section?

Domains
Criminal Justice Foreign Policy Immigration
Actor Mappings
"the_commission"
→ The commission identified in the operative section
"secretary_of_health_and_human_services"
→ Secretary of Health and Human Services

Key Definitions

Terms defined in this bill

1 term
"Fund" §id7f00bf3fb9b74b4b93344c05ca0e3319

the Welfare Fraud Recovery Fund established under subsection (d)(1)

We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.

Learn more about our methodology