Law shields ESOP stock valuations from close review.
S. 2403 — Retire through Ownership Act · Filed by Roger Marshall (R-KS) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Jul 23, 2025 · Passed both chambers
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The bill changes a law called ERISA. It says people who run ESOPs can trust expert appraisals. They will not be sued for doing so. ESOPs are plans where workers own company stock. The bill makes it easier and cheaper to buy stock.
Who it affects
Workers in ESOPs may benefit from lower costs. Company owners and appraisers may also benefit. Workers could be at risk if appraisers overvalue the stock.
One thing to notice
The law protects ESOP managers from lawsuits if they use expert appraisals. But it does not require appraisers to disclose conflicts of interest to workers.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Jul 23, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jul 23, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions”
- Jul 30, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature…”
- Oct 9, 2025 — Passed the Senate · Congress.gov: “Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent”
- Sep 16, 2026 — Passed both chambers · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: (2/3 required): 401 - 14…”
- Sep 16, 2026 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Walberg moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 1 reports from Dec 2025 to Dec 2025.
Those reports show $210,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 6 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 0% of bills with any report.
Roger Marshall, who sponsored the bill, received $1,691,891 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- American Benefits Council — $210,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- ESOP — A plan where workers own stock in the company they work for.
- ERISA — A federal law that sets rules for retirement and benefit plans.
- appraisals — Expert estimates of what something is worth.
- conflicts of interest — When someone benefits from a decision they are supposed to make fairly.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,791 characters) on Jun 8, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,342 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.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jan 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-18.
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