Congress·In Committee·H.R. 8223

RECOUP Act of 2026

Local Police: Reimbursement for Immigration Assistance

Apr 9·View on Congress.gov·Read full text

Next up: A house committee

The RECOUP Act of 2026 is currently in the early stages of the legislative process. It has been sent to three different House committees for review and is not yet scheduled for a vote. The bill is actively moving through the initial committee phase.

Legislative Progress

House

Senate

President

Law

Very unlikely to pass

This bill is sponsored by a small group of Democrats and would take money away from federal immigration enforcement budgets, which usually faces strong opposition.

Key Points

This bill requires the federal government to pay back local police, fire, and emergency departments for costs they run up while helping federal immigration agents. It applies whenever ICE or Border Protection asks local agencies for help with immigration enforcement.
Local agencies can get money for their staff's time and pay rates. If federal agents ask for help, they are supposed to record the names and badge numbers of the local responders to make the payment process faster and more accurate.
The Department of Homeland Security would have to pay these bills within 30 days of receiving the details. If federal agents do not record the information, local departments can still submit their own requests to get their money back.
The funding would come from money already set aside for ICE and Border Protection that has not been spent yet. This means the federal immigration agencies would have to use their own current budgets to pay back the local towns and cities.
To keep officers safe, the bill forbids the government from sharing the personal information of the first responders who helped. Their names and badge numbers would stay private unless a judge specifically orders the information to be released.

Impact Analysis

Govbase has not yet run an impact analysis on this legislation.

Milestones

4 milestones4 actions

Apr 10, 2026House

Referred to the Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement.

Sent to a congressional committee for expert review. The committee decides whether this bill moves forward.

Apr 10, 2026House

Referred to the Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability.

Sent to a congressional committee for expert review. The committee decides whether this bill moves forward.

Apr 9, 2026House

Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the Committees on Homeland Security, and Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned.

Sent to a congressional committee for expert review. The committee decides whether this bill moves forward.

Apr 9, 2026

Introduced in House

The bill was officially filed and given a number. It now enters the legislative queue.

No votes, news coverage, or related bills recorded for this bill yet.