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CIVIC HERALD
HR 6978 · 119th Congress · HouseOther

Preserving Integrity in Immigration Benefits Act

In plain language: This bill requires U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to re-examine all immigration benefits approved between January 20, 2021, and the date the bill becomes law if those benefits are related to a specific 2025 Presidential Proclamation regarding national security. The agency must ensure these cases were handled correctly according to legal standards and must brief Congress on their findings. Additionally, a report on the results of this review must be made available to the public by September 15, 2026.

Provisional — our plain-language summary, pending review.

  1. Jan 27, 2026Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 398.
  2. Jan 27, 2026Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Judiciary. H. Rept. 119-465.
  3. Jan 27, 2026Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Judiciary. H. Rept. 119-465.
  4. Jan 13, 2026Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 18 - 11.
  5. Jan 8, 2026Introduced in House
  6. Jan 8, 2026Introduced in House
Provisionalunreviewed: impact, issue tags, provisions, stakeholders, summary
People affectedThe text does not specify the number of immigration benefit requests implicated by PP 10998 during the covered period; a precise count is not determinable from the operative text.
Fiscal magnitudeCBO cost estimate published (H.R. 6978, Preserving Integrity in Immigration Benefits Act, 2026-02-19); dollar figure pending review extraction — see receipt
Reach32provisional — pending reviewrigor: heuristic llm
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What it does

The provisions, in plain language.

  1. The Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services must conduct a full review of every immigration benefit request that was approved between January 20, 2021, and the date this law takes effect, if that request was implicated by Presidential Proclamation 10998 (Dec. 16, 2025, restricting foreign national entry for national security). The review must verify that each approval was properly decided and that the correct legal standards were applied.

    Sec. 2(a)provisional
  2. No later than September 15, 2026, the USCIS Director must deliver an in-person briefing to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees reporting the findings of that review.

    Sec. 2(b)provisional
  3. No later than September 15, 2026, the USCIS Director must publish the full results of the review in a publicly available online report.

    Sec. 2(c)provisional

Who it affects

Who it helps · who it burdens.

Who it helps

  • House and Senate Judiciary CommitteesThese committees receive a mandatory in-person briefing from the USCIS Director on the review findings, giving Congress direct oversight visibility into how immigration benefit requests were adjudicated during the covered period (Provision 2).provisional
  • General publicA full public report of the review findings must be published online by September 15, 2026, giving any member of the public access to the results (Provision 3).provisional

Who it burdens

  • U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)USCIS is mandated to conduct a comprehensive audit of past immigration benefit approvals implicated by PP 10998, prepare a congressional briefing, and publish a public report — all by September 15, 2026 — imposing a significant new administrative workload on the agency (Provisions 1–3).provisional
  • People who received immigration benefits approved Jan. 20, 2021 through enactmentPrior recipients whose approved benefit requests are implicated by PP 10998 are subject to a mandatory re-scrutiny of their adjudications. The text does not specify consequences, but the review creates the possibility of findings that could affect their status (Provision 1).provisional

Dollar-level funding (FEC sector totals) — coming in a later phase.

Issues

What this bill touches.

Ethics & oversight+24Enforcement & security−42Levels of legal immigration−28Refugee & asylum policy−22

The sign shows the bill's direction on each issue (+ toward, − away); the number is its magnitude. Color never encodes good or bad, and never party.

The original text

Read it for yourself.

1,200 characters of primary source text.

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