Bill ends State Department reports Congress used to watch foreign policy.
H.R. 8668 — State Department Recurring Reports Repeal and Sunset Act of 2026 · Filed by Keith Self (R-TX) · Introduced May 7, 2026 · Reported out
Your members of Congress
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What it does
This bill stops or changes many reports the State Department must send to Congress. Some reports end right away. Others will stop in 2030 or 2038. The reports cover sanctions, arms sales, human rights, religious freedom, and treaties.
Who it affects
Congress loses tools to check what the State Department and Defense Department do. Citizens cannot easily see what the government does about sanctions and arms sales.
One thing to notice
The bill removes reports Congress created to watch foreign policy and military sales. Congress and the public will know less about what the State Department does.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- May 7, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- May 7, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Foreign Affairs · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs”
- May 13, 2026 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- May 13, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by Voice Vote”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- sanctions — Punishments one country puts on another, like stopping trade or freezing money.
- arms sales — When the U.S. sells weapons or military equipment to other countries.
- reports — Papers that an agency must send to Congress with information about what it does.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (10,220 characters) on Jul 9, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,206 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 2026-09-17.
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