Congress weaponizes federal contracts against payment processors over gun policies.
H.R. 70 — No SmartPay for Anti-2A Companies Act · Filed by Andy Biggs (R-AZ) · 4 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 3, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill prohibits the federal government from awarding contracts under the SmartPay Program (a federal employee purchasing card system) to payment processors that have created a merchant category code specifically for gun retailers. The bill targets payment processors that track gun sales separately, effectively barring them from federal contracts. Gun rights advocates introduced this as retaliation against financial companies they view as hostile to Second Amendment interests.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is not a public-interest procurement standard but rather a targeted exclusion of companies based on their lawful financial compliance practices. It uses federal contracting authority as a political weapon against private entities whose business decisions the sponsors oppose.
What the text implies
- Sets precedent for using federal procurement as political punishment: future administrations could exclude contractors based on environmental, labor, or other policy positions, eroding merit-based contracting.
- May increase federal payment-processing costs if excluded vendors offer better rates or service; taxpayers bear the cost of ideological procurement.
- Merchant category codes for gun retailers are a lawful compliance tool used by payment processors to meet regulatory and banking requirements—the bill penalizes legal business practice.
- Signals that federal contracts are conditional on alignment with sponsor's political views, not competitive bidding or value, undermining public trust in government procurement integrity.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Citizens lose access to potentially more competitive or efficient payment systems based on political ideology rather than merit or cost. The bill uses federal purchasing power as a tool to punish private companies for lawful business decisions, setting a precedent that government contracts will be awarded or withheld based on alignment with political causes rather than value to taxpayers.
Who stands to gain
- payment processors not subject to the exclusion (competitors of excluded firms)
Named in the bill
General Services Administration (GSA), SmartPay Program, payment processors, gun retailers, merchant category codes
Where it stands
4 cosponsors: 4 Republicans.
- Jan 3, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jan 3, 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.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (555 characters) on Sep 26, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 15,166 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 2026-09-26.
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