Law stops big pay bonuses for top workers during firm failure
H.R. 10942 — No Bonuses in Bankruptcy Act of 2026 · Filed by Mary Scanlon (D-PA) · Introduced Oct 29, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill stops courts from approving bonuses for workers earning over $250,000 a year. The ban applies during a firm's failure. It lets trustees take back bonuses paid in the 180 days before failure. Those bonuses would have been blocked anyway. The bill does not apply to sales commissions or union pay.
Who it affects
People owed money by the failed firm benefit. More money stays in the firm's assets. Top-paid workers and insiders cannot get bonus pay. Lower-paid workers have a better chance to get paid back.
One thing to notice
The bill lets the trustee recover bonuses paid up to 180 days before the firm failed.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Oct 29, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Oct 29, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- failure — A legal process when a firm cannot pay debts owed.
- trustee — A person the court picks to manage the firm's money and assets.
- commissions — Pay based on sales or work done, not a flat bonus.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,214 characters) on Nov 4, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,938 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 2026-11-04.
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