Bill lets the President hire private hackers to attack foreign targets.
S. 5000 — Cyber Letters of Marque and Reprisal Act · Filed by Mike Lee (R-UT) · Introduced Jul 15, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
The bill lets the President hire private people to hack foreign targets. The President decides which targets are cyber threats. These private hackers keep 85% of stolen money or data they get back. They cannot be sued for hacking they do under this deal. The bill says this would stop ransomware networks and return stolen money to victims.
Who it affects
Private hackers and firms would get permission and money to hack. Americans who lost money to ransomware might get it back. The bill does not add new ways to stop hacking that is not already illegal.
One thing to notice
Private hackers can attack with almost no limits and cannot be sued. The President alone decides who counts as a threat.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Jul 15, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jul 15, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Foreign Relations · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- ransomware — Software that locks up data until someone pays money to unlock it.
- cannot be sued — Protected from being taken to court for actions you take.
- cyber threats — Foreign people or groups the President says are hacking dangers.
- stolen money — Cash or assets taken by hackers or criminals.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (7,811 characters) on Oct 26, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,580 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 2026-10-26.
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