# H.R. 2978 (119th): Guarding Unprotected Aging Retirees from Deception Act of 2026 or the GUARD Act of 2026

Guarding Unprotected Aging Retirees from Deception Act of 2026 or the GUARD Act of 2026 This bill allows state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies and grantees that receive funds from certain law enforcement grant programs to use the funds to investigate general financial fraud, elder financial fraud, and pig butchering. Pig butchering refers to a confidence and investment fraud in which a victim is gradually lured into transferring increasing amounts of money, generally in the form of cryptocurrency, into a fake virtual investment. The bill allows federal law enforcement agencies to assist state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies and fusion centers in the use of tracing tools for blockchain and related technology tools. Finally, the bill requires the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to report on efforts to combat general financial fraud, elder financial fraud, pig butchering, and scams, including an evaluation of any legislative recommendations to improve the efforts. The bill also requires FinCEN to report on the state of general financial fraud, elder financial fraud, pig butchering, and scams in the United States, including trends in the crimes.

## How this bill is scored

Tier: no Tier 1 record. A bill with no record cannot newly become Tier 1.
Lane: cryptocurrency. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: elder_fraud_protection. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: financial_fraud. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: financial_surveillance_limits. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: law_enforcement_grants. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Lane: procedural. Category: not stored. Lane tag: not stored.
Tier 1 sign-off: no record. A bill with no record cannot newly become Tier 1.
Stored polarity: good. A yea supports the bill. A nay is the penalized direction when the tag is scored as a protection. A yea on a credit tag is a credit.
Roll 301: On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass, as Amended. Vote type: final_passage.
Polarity rationale: Reviewed enrichment (llm_import) polarity: The bill's core operation is to fund and coordinate investigation of fraud that targets elderly and other victims, which restrains a named harm and defends justice for the vulnerable. It does not expand surveillance power as such, create warrant exceptions, or direct harm. Some reviewers may question the blockchain tracing provisions as a surveillance-adjacent concern, but that is not decisive on the current summary.
Theological note: The measure bears on the duty to protect the vulnerable from fraud and theft, since elderly victims of deception lose savings they cannot easily recover. Scripture's concern for justice toward the weak and against deceit (for example, Proverbs 11:1 and Leviticus 19:11) is engaged here. The relevant question is whether enforcement capacity is used justly, which would require attention to lawful process and to limits on any financial monitoring the tracing tools might involve.

## Recorded votes

Roll 301: On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass, as Amended. Yea 414 · Nay 7 · Other 12.

HTML: https://justmeasure.org/bill/hr-2978-119/