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To amend section 1751 of title 18, United States Code, to include the death penalty as punishment for an attempt to assassinate certain individuals.
Summary
The bill would amend federal law to make the death penalty an available punishment for attempts to assassinate the President and certain other protected individuals. Currently, section 1751(c) of title 18, United States Code, provides for imprisonment as punishment for such assassination attempts. The proposed change would insert "death or" before "imprisonment" in that section, allowing prosecutors to seek the death penalty in addition to or instead of imprisonment for these crimes. The bill was introduced in May 2026 and referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary for consideration.
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)
- Rep. Gooden, Lance [R-TX-5] (R-TX)
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.
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)
- May 7, 2026 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary. · house
- 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.
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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