Bill removes D.C.'s group that helped pick federal judges
H.R. 5125 — District of Columbia Judicial Nominations Reform Act · Filed by Pete Sessions (R-TX) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Sep 4, 2025 · Passed chamber
Your members of Congress
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What it does
This bill stops the District of Columbia Judicial Nomination Commission from working. The Commission used to suggest people for judge jobs in D.C. After this bill, the President will pick judges without the Commission's help. The bill removes all rules about the Commission from D.C. laws.
Who it affects
D.C. residents lose a way to have a say in picking judges. The Commission let local lawyers and leaders give ideas about judges. Now only the President picks judges.
One thing to notice
The bill removes the only formal way D.C. residents could work together to influence who becomes a judge. Starting when the bill becomes law, future judge jobs will be filled by the President alone.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 2 Republicans.
- Sep 4, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Sep 4, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform”
- Sep 10, 2025 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Sep 10, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 25 - 20”
- Sep 17, 2025 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On passage Passed by the Yeas and Nays: 218 - 211 (Roll no. 274).”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 3 reports from Dec 2025 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $310,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 70 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 41% of bills with any report.
Pete Sessions, who sponsored the bill, received $538,450 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- League of Conservation Voters — $230,000 in 1 report
- Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence — $80,000 in 2 reports
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- District of Columbia Judicial Nomination Commission — A group that suggested people to be judges in D.C.
- President — The head of the U.S. government who picks judges.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,841 characters) on Jul 8, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,522 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.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-21.
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