# 119-hr-10400: SMARTER Act

119-hr-10400, SMARTER Act, is a 119th Congress bill sponsored by Rep. Schweikert, David [R-AZ-1] (R-AZ); status introduced (as of 2026-10-04).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-10400
- As of: 2026-10-04
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Bill: 119-hr-10400
- Congress: 119
- Title: SMARTER Act
- Status: introduced
- Introduced: 2026-09-15
- Sponsor: Rep. Schweikert, David [R-AZ-1] (R-AZ)
- Cosponsors: 0
- Policy area: Immigration
- Touches household money: no
- Last recorded action: 2026-10-04

## Summary

**This bill would overhaul U.S. legal immigration to** **prioritize skilled, points-based admissions**. It would eliminate the Diversity Visa, narrow family-sponsored categories and ages, establish a Commerce-led SMART Board to set employment limits and data rules, replace the H-1B framework with a new SMARTER nonimmigrant path, and create a paid Gold-Card investor visa program. - Families: Immediate-relative rules would narrow to spouses and younger children. An unmarried child counts as under 21 if a petition existed at enactment and under 18 otherwise, and parents would no longer be immediate relatives. - Skilled workers and employers: A new points system would score applicants on age, education, English, and pay. A SMART Board at Commerce would set employment-based numerical limits and may request non‑personally-identifiable industry and wage data, which must be provided within 60 days. - Gold-Card investors: Creates a Gold-Card program for 2026–2035 with 25,000 immigrant visas per year and a paid option starting at $1 million for single applicants.

## Provisions PRIA read

- AI to find visa overstays: cost, medium. This bill would direct DHS to build and use artificial intelligence to analyze immigration and travel records and other data to identify nonimmigrant visa holders who stayed past their allowed time. The process would apply to DHS immigration and travel records and other relevant data sources. If en…
- New limits for religious immigrant visas: cost, low. The bill would cap certain religious special immigrant visas at 2,500 per year. Religious sponsors would have to certify the salary will be high enough that the immigrant would not qualify for means‑tested Federal benefits. Spouses and children could not accompany or follow to join these special im…
- New paid Gold-Card immigrant visas: mixed, high. This bill would create a Gold‑Card program with 25,000 immigrant visas per year for each fiscal year 2026 through 2035. You could get a visa by paying $1,000,000 plus a $15,000 processing fee, or a corporation could pay $2,000,000 plus a $15,000 processing fee on your behalf. DHS would run admissib…
- New rules for work visas and wages: mixed, high. If enacted, USCIS would pick many employment immigrants using a numeric points system based on age, education, English, pay versus the State median, and other factors. Some education tiers would require an institution to have had at least $100,000 in federally financed R&D each of the prior four ye…
- Tighter family immigration and citizenship: mixed, high. This bill would narrow family‑sponsored immigration so it mainly covers spouses and children of lawful permanent residents and would make many other family petitions filed after introduction invalid. For people with a petition pending at enactment, "child" would mean under age 21; for people withou…

## Related bills

- 119-hr-7705: Tribal Tax and Investment Reform Act of 2026
- 119-hr-4895: Afghan Adjustment Act
- 119-hr-2025: Northeastern Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement Act of 2025
- 119-hr-4206: CONNECT for Health Act of 2025
- 119-hr-3466: SMART Act
- 119-hr-7971: Taxpayer Experience Improvement Act

## Sources
- [119-hr-10400 on Congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/10400)

## Related
- [119-hr-7705: Tribal Tax and Investment Reform Act of 2026](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-7705)
- [119-hr-4895: Afghan Adjustment Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-4895)
- [119-hr-2025: Northeastern Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-2025)
- [119-hr-4206: CONNECT for Health Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-4206)
- [119-hr-3466: SMART Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-3466)
- [119-hr-7971: Taxpayer Experience Improvement Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-7971)
- [All bills in Congress](https://policyrisk.com/legislation)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-10400 (as of 2026-10-04).