Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) joined Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) in leading a group of 22 senators in introducing legislation to restrict the President’s authority under the 217-year-old Insurrection Act.
The new Insurrection Act of 2025 would reform centuries-old legislation that gives the President broad and vague authority to deploy troops – either with or without the request of a state – to suppress “any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy.” The current law has been used sparingly by other presidents given the potential for the military to escalate tensions, rather than restore order, during a domestic crisis.
“The president’s dangerous decision to deploy the National Guard and the U.S. Marine Corps in Los Angeles over the objection of our governor brings us closer to the very real possibility that the president could invoke the Insurrection Act to turn our military into a political tool. That must never be allowed to happen,” said Senator Schiff. “This bill would prevent any president from deploying military forces domestically when civilian state and local authorities are engaged. This abuse of military resources that we are seeing in Los Angeles risks being replicated around the country if Congress doesn’t stand up to President Trump’s creeping authoritarianism.”
“Americans believe deeply that our military should be used to defend our national security, not to silence peaceful protest at home. I support – and the Constitution protects – free expression and protest when peaceful and nonviolent,” Senator Blumenthal said. “President Trump may not have invoked the Insurrection Act yet, but he has threatened to use our military as an instrument to crush dissent and Congress must act quickly. These urgent reforms would impose oversight and accountability to the President’s broad, virtually unrestricted power to use military force against Americans at home.”
“Our military should be focused on defending our national security — not silencing speech a president disagrees with or policing our own citizens,” said Senator Padilla. “President Trump’s unprecedented deployment of the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles to manufacture a crisis and distract from his failing political agenda is a clear warning sign: we must strengthen legal protections around the executive authority to use the military for standard domestic law enforcement. The archaic Insurrection Act is far too broad and grants nearly unchecked powers to a president to abuse the military for their own political purposes — and we must make sure it continues to only be invoked in the most extreme of circumstances.”
The legislation is cosponsored by U.S. Senator Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Mark Warner (D-Va.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
The new Insurrection Act of 2025 would:
- Narrow and clarify the criteria for the domestic deployment of military troops for law enforcement purposes.
- Specify that the use of the military is a last resort and is authorized only if the use of civilian law enforcement authorities would be insufficient.
- Clarify that the law cannot be used to suspend habeas corpus, impose martial law, or deputize private militias to act as soldiers.
- Require the President to consult with Congress prior to invoking the Insurrection Act and receive Congressional approval if the President seeks to exercise authority under the Act for longer than 7 days.
- Require a report to Congress providing an explicit justification for the use of the Insurrection Act’s authority, as enumerated in this legislation, and a full description of the scope and duration of its use.
- Provide for judicial review to ensure that individuals, or a state or local government, may bring a civil action if the President’s authority under the Insurrection Act is misused or abused.
Read the full text of the bill here.
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