Bill would ban federal face scanning without Congress say-so.
S. 5544 — Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act of 2026 · Filed by Ed Markey (D-MA) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Sep 24, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The bill stops the federal government from using face scanning. Congress must pass a law first that says it can. States and cities lose federal police money if they use face scanning. They can keep the money if they ban it. People can sue the federal government and get money back.
Who it affects
All people in the United States. States and cities that get federal police money. Federal agencies that use face scanning.
One thing to notice
The bill lets the government test face scanning for research without the ban. Congress could pass new laws that let some agencies use face scanning.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 3 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
- face scanning — Using a camera to identify people by their faces.
- federal police money — Money the government gives to state and local police departments.
- sue — Take someone to court to ask a judge for money or to stop them from doing something.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (7,158 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.
“Bill would ban federal face scanning without Congress say-so.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5544/simple Report an error
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