Child Marriage Prevention Act of 2026

Key Points

• The bill creates a 10-member National Commission to Combat Child Marriage to study how often child marriage happens and what laws exist across every state, then report recommendations to Congress and the President.
• States that pass laws banning marriage under 18 with no exceptions would become eligible for a 10 percent boost in federal domestic violence and sexual assault grant funding, capped at four 2-year increases.
• The bill rewrites spousal and fiance visa rules so that generally both people must be 18 or older, with only a narrow exception for 16 or 17 year olds facing a documented risk of individualized harm, and pregnancy or parental consent cannot be used to qualify for that exception.
• Federal property, including federal buildings and land, could no longer be used to perform a marriage unless both people are at least 18 years old.
• The Department of Justice must create a model state law banning marriage under 18 and letting people who married as minors petition to void the marriage, while blocking the adult spouse from doing the same.
• Immigration officers must privately interview both parties to a spousal or fiance visa case whenever one of them was under 18 when they married or got engaged, to help catch forced marriages.