Congress restores health coverage for wrongfully fired federal workers

What it does

This bill allows federal civil service employees who were fired between January 20 and January 1, 2026 to enroll in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) if they were removed without cause, had satisfactory performance reviews, were pregnant at removal, or were diagnosed with cancer in the prior five years. The government and employee contributions are to be paid from savings generated by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Why we flagged it

The bill's operative mechanism is a targeted eligibility expansion for a specific class of terminated workers to restore a lost benefit. It is remedial in character — addressing a harm (wrongful removal + loss of coverage) — rather than a general entitlement expansion.

What the text implies

• The bill's temporal window (Jan 20 – Jan 1, 2026) is narrow and appears designed to capture removals during a specific administrative transition; it does not apply to wrongful terminations outside this window, creating a one-time remedy rather than a permanent policy.
• Funding from DOGE savings creates a contingency: if DOGE does not generate the projected savings, the bill's fiscal sustainability is unclear. The bill does not specify a fallback appropriation or cap on enrollment.
• The eligibility criteria (pregnancy, cancer diagnosis) may trigger privacy concerns if enrollment requires disclosure of medical or reproductive status to federal administrators.
• The bill does not address whether re-hired or settled employees are eligible, or how it interacts with existing severance, legal settlements, or unemployment benefits.

Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.

Who it affects

The bill restores health insurance access to workers who lost it through involuntary removal, addressing a concrete hardship (loss of coverage during unemployment or illness). The eligibility criteria (removal without cause, satisfactory performance, pregnancy, cancer diagnosis) target workers with legitimate claims to protection, and the benefit is material — health coverage is essential. The funding mechanism (DOGE savings) does not reduce the benefit's value to recipients.

Who stands to gain

• Terminated federal civil service employees (individuals, not corporations)

Named in the bill

Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), U.S. Office of Personnel Management (implied administrator), Executive Order on Establishing and Implementing the President's Department of Government Efficiency

Where it stands

13 cosponsors: 13 Democrats.

• Feb 26, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
• Feb 26, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform”

Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.

Money around this bill

1 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $690,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 69 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.

More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.

Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, the sponsor, reported $86,000 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.

• National Treasury Employees Union — $690,000 on 2 filings

Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.