Capitol police fund guarantees $5M to every defender, then funds it with rioter settlements.

What it does

This bill creates a federal compensation fund for law enforcement officers who were injured or killed defending the Capitol on January 6, 2021. It establishes a Special Master to review claims and award compensation for economic losses (medical bills, lost wages, funeral costs), noneconomic losses (pain, suffering, PTSD), and death—with a minimum payment of $4.975 million for any death claim. Critically, the bill also requires a flat $4.975 million payment to EVERY law enforcement officer who defended the Capitol that day, regardless of whether they suffered any injury, divided equally among all eligible claimants.

Why we flagged it

While framed as compensation for injury and death, the operative mechanism is a guaranteed flat payment to all defending officers plus a formula that counts settlements paid to convicted rioters as offsets—creating a hidden subsidy mechanism and a financial incentive to maximize rioter payouts.

• Section 7 ties officer compensation to the sum of settlements paid to January 6 rioters—a substantively unrelated population whose payouts have no logical connection to officer harm.

What the text implies

• The bill's formula in Section 7 creates a direct financial incentive to maximize settlements paid to convicted January 6 rioters: the larger those settlements, the larger the pool divided among officers. This inverts normal compensation logic and may pressure the government to settle rioter claims generously.
• The minimum $4.975 million death payment is extraordinarily high and may exceed actual economic losses for many claimants, effectively converting a compensation fund into a pension or entitlement program.
• The flat per-officer payment (Section 7) applies to ALL defending officers regardless of injury, meaning officers who suffered no harm receive the same base amount as those with severe PTSD or permanent disability—conflating compensation with recognition.
• The Special Master's determinations are final and not subject to judicial review (Section 5(3)), eliminating any check on potentially excessive awards or misapplication of the collateral-source offset rule.
• The bill's 3-year claims window (Section 5(1)(3)) may exclude officers whose injuries or psychological harm manifest later, creating a temporal cliff that penalizes delayed diagnosis.

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

Who it affects

The bill appropriately compensates officers genuinely injured or killed in service, which is a legitimate public obligation. However, the provision guaranteeing a minimum $4.975 million to every defending officer—regardless of harm—transforms the fund into a blanket entitlement that may exceed reasonable compensation for actual losses and diverts substantial federal resources to a narrow group. The bill also creates a perverse incentive by counting settlements paid to January 6 rioters toward th

Who stands to gain

• law enforcement officers (Capitol defenders)
• attorneys representing claimants
• administrative personnel (Special Master's office)

Named in the bill

Attorney General, Special Master, law enforcement officers, January 6, 2021 Capitol attack, U.S. Capitol Police, Metropolitan Police Department

Where it stands

54 cosponsors: 54 Democrats.

• May 13, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
• May 13, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary”

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