Congress bars convicted citizens from suing federal government for wrongdoing
H.R. 9793 — Weaponization Offender Claims Ban Act of 2026 · Filed by Brittany Pettersen (D-CO) · Introduced Jul 20, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill amends federal tort law to bar individuals convicted of certain crimes—assault on federal officers, election interference, obstruction of federal processes, felony confrontations with federal law enforcement, or felony theft/embezzlement of federal funds—from suing the federal government for intentional torts. The effect is to strip legal remedies from a defined class of convicted persons, preventing them from recovering damages even if federal officials acted wrongfully toward them.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is to create a new class of persons barred from accessing federal tort remedies. It is not a general tort reform; it is a targeted immunity grant to the federal government against a specific subset of citizens defined by prior conviction.
What the text implies
- The bar applies regardless of whether the prior conviction relates to the federal officer's conduct in the current case. A person convicted of election interference decades ago cannot sue for an unrelated intentional tort by a federal officer today.
- The bill references 'without regard to whether that person was pardoned or any sentence entered against that person was commuted'—meaning even a pardoned or sentence-commuted individual remains barred from suit. This creates a permanent legal disability.
The full analysis lists 5 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
federal government (reduced tort liability and damages payouts)