Federal contractors banned for data breaches involving private data
S. 5684 — No Cash for Incompetent and Malicious Contractors Act · Filed by Rick Scott (R-FL) · Introduced Oct 15, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill bans firms from federal contracts if they or their workers are found guilty. The guilt must be for wrongly sharing people's private data. Private data includes Social Security numbers, tax returns, health records, and trade secrets. The ban lasts one to five years based on how bad the breach was. Firms can also be stopped from federal work while charges are still pending.
Who it affects
People whose private data is handled by federal firms gain stronger safety. Federal firms that handle private data must follow stricter rules or lose federal work.
One thing to notice
Firms can be stopped from federal work while charges are still pending. This can happen even if they are later found not guilty or not at fault.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Oct 15, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Oct 15, 2026 — Referred to committee · Congress.gov: “Under authority of the order of the Senate of September 30, 2026, ordered read twice and referred to the…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- trade secrets — private business data that gives a firm an edge
- banned — not allowed to get federal contracts for a set time
- pending — still being decided or not yet finished
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,596 characters) on Oct 21, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,388 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 2026-10-21.
“Federal contractors banned for data breaches involving private data” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5684/simple Report an error
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