Congress orders a study of cyber help for small shops.
S. 5291 — Small Business Cybersecurity Assistance Evaluation Act of 2026 · Filed by Adam Schiff (D-CA) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Aug 6, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The bill tells the GAO to study cyber help from the state. The GAO will look at what programs and tools exist. The GAO will check if small shops know about them. The GAO will see if different state programs work together. The GAO will report back to Congress with ideas. The bill does not pay for any new programs.
Who it affects
Small shops are affected because they face cyber attacks. They often do not have money to protect themselves. State groups that offer cyber help will be studied.
One thing to notice
The bill asks for a study but does not spend new money. The study may show what is missing in help that now exists.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Aug 6, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Aug 6, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- cyber — Protection against attacks on computers and data by hackers.
- small shops — Companies with fewer workers and less money than big ones.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,819 characters) on Aug 21, 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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