DEATH BETS Act

Adam B. Schiff

Democrat · CA · Senator

Source: Congress.gov · FEC

No cosponsors on record. Bills can pass without cosponsors — this often means the sponsor introduced the bill alone, either because it's a messaging bill, a chairman's mark, or simply early in the legislative cycle.

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.

2026-03-10

Source: Congress.gov

This bill would regulate or restrict the practice of betting on people's deaths, which involves financial contracts where investors profit when someone dies. The legislation aims to address concerns about these "death bets" in the financial markets by establishing rules around who can place such bets and under what conditions, potentially protecting individuals from having strangers financially benefit from their deaths. The bill affects insurance companies, financial firms, and investors who currently participate in these types of contracts.

AI-assisted summary generated from the official bill metadata (title, subjects, actions) sourced from Congress.gov. Cached and reviewed. Always verify against the official text linked below.

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] [S. 4035 Introduced in Senate (IS)] <DOC> 119th CONGRESS 2d Session S. 4035 To amend the Commodity Exchange Act to prohibit the listing of contracts relating to war, death, and similar activities. _______________________________________________________________________ IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES March 10, 2026 Mr. Schiff introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry _______________________________________________________________________ A BILL To amend the Commodity Exchange Act to prohibit the listing of contracts relating to war, death, and similar activities. 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 ``Discouraging Exploitative Assassination, Tragedy, and Harm Betting in Event Trading Systems Act'' or the ``DEATH BETS Act''. SEC. 2. PROHIBITION ON LISTING OF CONTRACTS RELATING TO WAR, DEATH, AND SIMILAR ACTIVITIES. Section 5c of the Commodity Exchange Act (7 U.S.C. 7a-2) is amended by inserting after subsection (c) the following: ``(d) Prohibition on Listing of Contracts Relating to War, Death, and Similar Activities.--A registered entity shall not list for trading or accept for clearing on or through the registered entity any of the following: ``(1) An agreement, contract, transaction, or swap based on an excluded commodity (as defined in section 1a(19)(iv)) that involves, relates to, or references terrorism, assassination, war, or any similar activity, as determined by the Commission. ``(2) An agreement, contract, transaction, or swap based on an excluded commodity (as defined in section 1a(19)(iv)) that involves, relates to, or references an individual's death or could otherwise be construed as correlating closely to an individual's death.''. <all>

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