Campaign money can't pay for sexual misconduct cover-ups
H.R. 9961 — No Campaign Funded Cover-Ups Act · Filed by Ro Khanna (D-CA) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Jul 27, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The bill stops politicians from using campaign money to pay legal fees in sexual assault cases. It stops them from paying settlements or court judgments in these cases too. They can only get money back if a court says they are not guilty. The bill also bans using campaign money to hire people to dig up dirt on accusers. All legal costs must be made public. The rule applies to payments made in the two years before the bill passes.
Who it affects
Politicians can no longer use campaign money to pay for sexual assault cases. People who give money to campaigns are affected because their money cannot be used this way. People who say they were harmed may be affected because legal costs will be made public.
One thing to notice
The bill applies to payments made in the two years before it passes. This could create fights about which payments were made before or after the rule starts.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Jul 27, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jul 27, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on House Administration · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on House Administration”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- not guilty — A court decides a person did not do the thing they were charged with
- legal costs — Money spent on lawyers and court cases
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (4,476 characters) on Jul 31, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 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 2026-09-23.
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