Federal Facial Recognition & Biometric Technology Moratorium Act (2026)

Bicameral reintroduction announced 2026-09-25 by Reps. Jayapal, Tlaib, Pressley and Sens. Markey and Merkley (official release, source_url). House bill H.R. 10563, 'Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act of 2026', received 2026-09-24 with 8 cosponsors (Quiver Quantitative). Provisions per the release: (1) prohibition on federal-entity use of facial recognition, liftable only by Act of Congress; (2) same for other biometric technologies incl. voice recognition, gait recognition and recognition of other immutable physical characteristics; (3) federal grant funding to state/local entities incl. law enforcement conditioned on enacting their own moratoria; (4) no federal dollars for biometric surveillance systems; (5) exclusion of biometric information obtained in violation of the Act from judicial proceedings; (6) private right of action and state AG enforcement; (7) states/localities may enact their own laws (no preemption). NOT ESTABLISHED: the Senate bill number; committee referral; specific grant programs affected; damages amounts and penalties for officials. Prior versions (2020-2023) are tracked in Federal facial recognition moratorium (died).