Federal contractors must now meet strict labor, environmental, and AI standards to win government wo
H.R. 10459 — Patriotic Corporations of America Act of 2026 · Filed by Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Sep 16, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill imposes new labor, environmental, tax, and corporate governance requirements on federal contractors and defense contractors. To win a federal contract, companies must pay at least $15/hour (indexed to wage growth), provide 21 days of paid leave, sign neutrality agreements with unions, disclose political donations, maintain U.S. headquarters, and meet environmental and tax standards. The bill also creates preferences for contractors that limit executive pay ratios, avoid outsourcing, offer employee stock ownership, have diverse leadership, and implement AI safeguards. Private equity-owned contractors face additional restrictions on dividend payments and asset transfers.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is a set of mandatory labor, environmental, tax, and corporate governance requirements that contractors must meet to receive federal work. It is not a subsidy, carve-out, or deregulation—it is affirmative regulation of the federal procurement process.
What the text implies
- The bill's union neutrality and no-replacement-worker provisions may significantly increase the cost and complexity of labor disputes for federal contractors, potentially reducing their competitiveness and profit margins.
- The private equity restrictions (dividend caps, asset-transfer prohibitions, fee freezes) may discourage PE investment in federal contractors, potentially reducing capital availability and consolidation activity in the sector.
- The AI disclosure and control requirements (election misinformation, sexual content, workplace surveillance) create new compliance and liability exposure for tech contractors and may chill innovation in AI tools used by federal agencies.
- The market consolidation restrictions (one-year/two-year post-contract acquisition bans) may prevent efficient consolidation and create stranded assets or force divestitures, raising costs for contractors and potentially reducing competition.
- The requirement to disclose country-by-country tax information and maintain U.S. headquarters may push multinational contractors to restructure operations or exit federal contracting, reducing the pool of available vendors.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill directly improves conditions for workers employed by federal contractors (higher minimum wages, paid leave, union organizing rights, workplace safety plans) and protects the public interest through environmental compliance, tax transparency, and AI safeguards. Citizens also benefit from reduced market consolidation and disclosure of corporate political spending. The compliance burden on contractors is a cost to those firms, not to ordinary people.
Who stands to gain
- workers employed by federal contractors (higher wages, paid leave, union organizing rights)
- domestic manufacturers and service providers (preference for non-outsourcing firms)
- employee-owned companies (preference for stock ownership and ESOP contributions)
- companies with diverse leadership (preference for 40% women/people of color in top roles)
Named in the bill
Department of Defense, Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council, National Labor Relations Board, Environmental Protection Agency, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Trade Commission, Internal Revenue Service, NIST (National Institute for Standards and Technology), Fair Labor Standards Act, National Labor Relations Act, Occupational Safety and Health Act, Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Sep 16, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Sep 16, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Armed Services and House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and in addition to the Committee on Armed…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (24,521 characters) on Sep 30, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Federal contractors must now meet strict labor, environmental, and AI standards to win government wo” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr10459 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.