Right now, a member of Congress can be convicted of a felony s*x crime and still collect a taxpayer-funded pension for the rest of their life. A new bill in the U.S. Senate is aimed squarely at ending that.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced the “No Pensions for Congressional Predators Act” on April 16, 2026. The proposal would bar any member of Congress convicted of a felony s*x crime from receiving their federal pension — money paid for by taxpayers. It is, for now, an introduced bill: a proposal, not yet law.
The Loophole the Bill Targets
This is about closing a gap that has existed in federal law for decades. Under current rules, members of Congress already forfeit their pensions if they are convicted of certain felonies — bribery, treason, fraud, and perjury among them. The logic is straightforward: lawmakers who betray the public trust in those specific ways should not keep drawing a government check.
But felony s*x crimes were never added to that list. The result is a striking inconsistency. A lawmaker convicted of lying under oath can lose their pension, while a lawmaker convicted of a felony s*x offense can keep collecting one. Hawley’s bill would put s*x crimes alongside the other disqualifying felonies and close the gap.
Why Now
The timing is not an accident. The bill follows two House members resigning back-to-back over s*xual-misconduct allegations — a sequence that reignited a long-simmering debate over whether lawmakers should be financially rewarded after a serious breach of public trust.
Those resignations put a spotlight on an uncomfortable reality: the existing forfeiture rules simply were not written with these offenses in mind. For supporters of the bill, that is exactly the point. If the public is footing the bill for congressional pensions, they argue, it is reasonable to ask that the most serious convictions disqualify someone from keeping that benefit.
What Happens Next
It is worth being precise about where this stands. This is an introduced bill — a starting point, not a finished law. To take effect, it would still need to clear committee, pass both the Senate and the House, and be signed by the president. Plenty of bills are introduced every session and never become law. Whether this one builds bipartisan momentum or stalls remains to be seen.
What makes it notable is the framing. Stripped of party labels, the measure is an accountability question: should anyone — regardless of who they are or which party they belong to — keep collecting a taxpayer-funded pension after being convicted of a felony s*x crime? That is a question that tends to cut across the usual political divides.
What This Means for Americans
For ordinary taxpayers, the stakes are simple. Congressional pensions are funded by the public. A bill like this is really a debate over what conditions should attach to that public money — and whether the people who fund those pensions get a say in cutting them off when an elected official commits one of the most serious crimes on the books. It puts the principle of accountability for those in power directly on the table.
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