Congress bars officials from profiting off defense contracts
H.R. 6689 — ETHICAL Procurement Act · Filed by Steven Horsford (D-NV) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Dec 12, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill prohibits the Department of Defense from awarding contracts to companies where a senior government official, their immediate family member, or certain high-level appointees hold an ownership stake or leadership position. It applies to presidential appointees, Schedule C political staff, special government employees, and Senior Executive Service members. The SecDef must issue regulations within 30 days defining thresholds and enforcement procedures.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is a prophylactic ban on defense contracts for entities where government officials or their families hold financial stakes. It is a transparency and accountability measure designed to prevent self-dealing in federal procurement.
What the text implies
- The bill may create incentives for officials to divest or place holdings in blind trusts, but enforcement depends entirely on SecDef regulations issued within 30 days—a tight timeline that may result in incomplete or narrow definitions of 'significant ownership interest' and 'substantial financial benefit.'
- The phrase 'as determined by SecDef' grants the Secretary broad discretion to define thresholds, creating potential for inconsistent enforcement or political manipulation depending on who holds the office.
- Immediate family member definition includes domestic partners, which may create novel compliance questions for contractors and officials regarding proof of domestic partnership status.
- The bill does not address existing contracts or those in the pipeline at enactment—only prospective contracts—leaving potential loopholes for deals already in negotiation.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill restricts government officials and their families from profiting through defense contracts, reducing conflicts of interest and self-dealing in federal procurement. This strengthens accountability and ensures defense dollars are allocated based on merit rather than official connections, benefiting taxpayers and the integrity of the procurement process.
Named in the bill
Department of Defense, Secretary of Defense, Presidential appointees, Schedule C staff, Senior Executive Service, Defense contractors
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 2 Democrats.
- Dec 12, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Dec 12, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Armed Services · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Armed Services”
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 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. Those filings disclosed $30,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 26 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.
Steven Horsford, the sponsor, reported $1,801,734 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Transparency International U.S. (a Project of the Fund for Constitutional Govt) — $30,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jan 15, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,009 characters) on Jun 10, 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.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. 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 Jan 15, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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