People can sue government workers for honest-services fraud.
S. 5511 — Honest Services Fraud Improvement Act · Filed by Andy Kim (D-NJ) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Sep 24, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill lets people sue government workers in federal court. They can sue if a government worker commits honest-services fraud. A person who wins gets three times the damages. The person also gets the lawyer's fees paid. The government gets 60 days to prosecute the worker first.
Who it affects
People who live in or work for a district gain the right to sue. Government workers can be sued. Lawyers who take these cases can earn fees if they win.
One thing to notice
The bill stops candidates and people funded by campaigns from suing. This may prevent some people harmed by worker misconduct from suing if they are political opponents.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Sep 24, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 24, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- honest-services fraud — A scheme to cheat the public of honest government by a worker.
- three times the damages — Money paid to the winner equal to three times the actual harm.
- lawyer's fees — Money paid to cover a lawyer's costs in the case.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (7,259 characters) on Oct 3, 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.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
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