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HR 8685
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Protect the Presidency Act

To amend section 1751 of title 18, United States Code, to include the death penalty as punishment for an attempt to assassinate certain individuals.

Introduced May 7, 2026

Latest action (May 7, 2026) Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

Referred to
Judiciary Committee
Policy area
Crime and Law Enforcement
Issues
Criminal Justice

Summary
  • Modifies Section 1751 of federal criminal law regarding attempted assassination of protected individuals.
  • Adds the death penalty as a possible punishment for attempting to assassinate the President and other protected federal officials.
  • Previously, imprisonment was the only authorized punishment for attempted assassination of these officials.

AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.

Sponsor (1)
1 cosponsor

Money behind the sponsor

Top reported contributors to Lance Gooden’s campaign committee (2024 cycle) — who funds the bill’s sponsor, not a claim about this bill. Data from FEC.

  • Employer not reported $63,200
  • BIOUS $9,900
  • CADWALADER $6,600
  • ISTATION $6,600
  • COPART, INC $6,600

Organizations whose employees gave the most — itemized individual contributions grouped by the donor’s reported employer (FEC Schedule A). Full finance for Lance Gooden → · Outside spending →

Actions (2)
  1. May 7, 2026 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary. · house
  2. May 7, 2026 Introduced in House

Similar bills (6)

Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.

  • HR 8940 — Federal Death Penalty Prohibition Act · Introduced May 20, 2026 · Cong. 119 72%
  • HR 7702 — Death Penalty for Child Rapists Act · Introduced Feb 25, 2026 · Cong. 119 69%
  • S 4608 — Federal Death Penalty Prohibition Act · Introduced May 20, 2026 · Cong. 119 67%
  • HR 8678 — Zero Tolerance for Political Violence Act of 2026 · Introduced May 7, 2026 · Cong. 119 66%
  • HR 4081 — Foreign Adversary Federal Offense Act of 2025 · Introduced Jun 23, 2025 · Cong. 119 64%
  • HR 1789 — Promptly Ending Political Prosecutions and Executive Retaliation Act of 2025 · Introduced Mar 21, 2025 · Cong. 119 63%

Text versions (1)
  • Introduced in House · May 7, 2026

Only one text version is on file, so there’s no earlier version to compare against yet.

Full text

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

May 7, 2026

Mr. Gooden (for himself and Mr. Steube) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

A BILL

To amend section 1751 of title 18, United States Code, to include the death penalty as punishment for an attempt to assassinate certain individuals.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the “Protect the Presidency Act”.

SEC. 2. PUNISHMENT FOR ASSASSINATION OF CERTAIN INDIVIDUALS.

Section 1751(c) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by inserting “death or” before “imprisonment”. <all>

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