Banks must prove they can borrow in a crisis—and the Fed must make it easier.
S. 4585 — Discount Window Preparedness Act · Filed by Mark Warner (D-VA) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced May 20, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill requires all U.S. banks and credit unions to regularly test their ability to borrow from the Federal Reserve's discount window—a backstop lending facility meant for emergencies. Large banks (over $100 billion in assets) must test quarterly; mid-size banks ($10–100 billion) must test twice yearly. The Federal Reserve must also upgrade its systems to make borrowing faster, easier, and less stigmatized, and study ways to further reduce the shame banks feel when using this emergency tool.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is a regulatory requirement for banks to demonstrate operational readiness to access emergency Federal Reserve lending. It is fundamentally a stress-testing and operational-preparedness measure, not a subsidy, deregulation, or narrow carve-out.
What the text implies
- Quarterly testing for large banks may create a de facto normalization of discount window borrowing, potentially reducing the stigma that currently deters banks from using it during crises—a stated goal, but one that could shift market expectations about when banks are under stress.
- The requirement to harmonize collateral procedures across Federal Home Loan Banks and Federal Reserve banks may reduce friction in liquidity markets, benefiting mid-size and smaller banks that have historically faced higher operational barriers to emergency borrowing.
- The Federal Reserve's obligation to review and potentially revise its balance-sheet reporting methodology (Section 6) could reduce market speculation about which banks are borrowing from the discount window, potentially dampening contagion risk during financial stress.
- Mandatory liquidity risk management plans and board-level review of operational readiness may increase compliance costs for smaller institutions, though the bill includes an outreach program to mitigate this burden.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill strengthens the financial system's resilience by ensuring banks can actually access emergency liquidity when needed, reducing the risk of sudden bank failures that would harm depositors and the broader economy. It also reduces the stigma around using the discount window, which may prevent banks from waiting too long to borrow during crises, thereby protecting ordinary depositors and the public.
Who stands to gain
- mid-size and smaller depository institutions (reduced operational barriers to emergency liquidity)
- credit unions (explicit inclusion in testing requirements and outreach)
- Federal Reserve banks (operational improvements funded by the bill)
Named in the bill
Federal Reserve, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), Federal Home Loan Banks, Federal Housing Finance Administration, Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, House Committee on Financial Services
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- May 20, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- May 20, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $230,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 25 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Mark Warner, the sponsor, reported $2,246,650 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Syensqo USA LLC — $230,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 13, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (8,841 characters) on Aug 12, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 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 Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. 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 Jul 13, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Banks must prove they can borrow in a crisis—and the Fed must make it easier.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s4585 Report an error
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