HR8858Referred to Committee

To allow Americans to sue federal officials for constitutional violations of voting rights and election law.

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Introduced
In Committee
3
Passed One Chamber
4
Passed Both
5
Signed into Law
119th
Congress
2026-05-15
Introduced
0
Cosponsors
HR
ⓘ
Type

Sponsor

Seth Moulton
Seth Moulton
Democrat · MA · Representative
Votes with party: 97.5% (488 recorded votes)

Full profile: /officials/M001196

Source: Congress.gov · FEC

Cosponsors (0)

Members who have signed on to support this bill since introduction. Source: Congress.gov.

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.

Latest Action

The most recent step in the bill's legislative path. Committee Activity below shows referrals and reports; the full action-by-action history including floor proceedings lives at Congress.gov →

Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.

2026-05-15

Source: Congress.gov

Committee Activity

Currently in

Plain-English Summary

The legislation would allow Americans to take federal officials to court if they believe those officials have violated their constitutional voting rights or broken election laws. Currently, certain legal protections make it difficult for citizens to sue government employees for such violations, and this bill would remove some of those barriers. The change would primarily affect voters seeking legal remedies and federal officials involved in administering elections.

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.

Full Bill Text

Verbatim text published on Congress.gov via GovInfo. Use Cmd+F / Ctrl+F to search within this excerpt.

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] [H.R. 8858 Introduced in House (IH)] <DOC> 119th CONGRESS 2d Session H. R. 8858 To allow Americans to sue Federal officials for constitutional violations of voting rights and election law. _______________________________________________________________________ IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES May 15, 2026 Mr. Moulton introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary _______________________________________________________________________ A BILL To allow Americans to sue Federal officials for constitutional violations of voting rights and election law. 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 ``Protecting American Voters' Rights Act''. SEC. 2. CIVIL ACTION AGAINST PERSON ACTING UNDER FEDERAL ELECTION AUTHORITY. Section 1979 of the Revised Statutes (42 U.S.C. 1983) is amended by inserting ``of any Federal election or election enforcement authority or'' before ``of any State''. <all>
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