# 119-hr-3853: Federal Government Reform Act of 2025

119-hr-3853, Federal Government Reform Act of 2025, is a 119th Congress bill sponsored by Rep. Steube, W. Gregory [R-FL-17] (R-FL); status introduced; PRIA reads it as touching household money (as of 2026-04-21).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-3853
- As of: 2026-04-21
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Bill: 119-hr-3853
- Congress: 119
- Title: Federal Government Reform Act of 2025
- Status: introduced
- Introduced: 2025-06-09
- Sponsor: Rep. Steube, W. Gregory [R-FL-17] (R-FL)
- Cosponsors: 0
- Policy area: Government Operations and Politics
- Touches household money: yes
- Last recorded action: 2026-04-21

## Summary

**Modernize federal operations and rulemaking.** This bill would push the government to speed up rule publication, tighten probation for many new federal hires, and build a secure, digital payments backbone for the Treasury. - Federal workers and job applicants would face a stronger probationary regime. Many career and career-conditional hires would serve a 12-month probationary period, reinstatements can restart that year, and first-time supervisors would also undergo probation under Office of Personnel Management guidelines. - Agencies and the public would see faster, clearer rulemaking. Agencies would have to review regulations that impose criminal penalties and recommend repeal or change within 1 year, and the Federal Register would be required to digitize processes with benchmarks to publish rules within statutory deadlines or within 24 hours of receipt. - People, businesses, and agencies would get faster payments. The Treasury would be required to adopt modern technologies and partnerships to reduce paper transactions and replace pre-2000 systems with a secure digital payment infrastructure.

## Provisions PRIA read

- Faster, safer federal payments and refunds: benefit, high. If enacted, the Treasury Secretary would build secure digital systems to speed payments to and from the government. This would cut paper checks and old IT from before 2000. It could make tax refunds, benefits, and other payments faster and safer for many households.
- Faster publishing of federal rules online: benefit, medium. If enacted, the Archivist would digitize and automate Federal Register work to cut delays. Within 90 days, the Archivist would set benchmarks so proposed and final rules publish by law or within 24 hours of receipt. A first compliance report to Congress would be due within one year, then yearly. Th…
- No new criminal penalties by regulation: benefit, medium. If enacted, agencies could not issue rules that create criminal penalties unless Congress has clearly put the same penalty in law. Within one year, each agency would report any rules with unclear criminal authority and recommend repeal or fixes.
- One-year probation rules for federal hires: cost, medium. If enacted, most new competitive-service federal hires would serve a one-year probation, and many reinstated workers would start a new 12-month probation. The rule would also cover special-authority hires and some Postal employees moving into the competitive service, unless that authority exempts t…
- Federal Executive Institute would close: cost, low. If enacted, the personnel office would permanently close the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville within 90 days. After the closure date, no federal funds could be spent on any Institute activity. Staff and agencies that use the Institute's training could lose jobs or services.

## Related bills

- 119-hr-4669: FEMA Act of 2025
- 119-hr-2570: Maximum Pressure Act
- 119-hr-9109: Stop ANTIFA Act of 2026
- 119-hr-687: MERIT Act of 2025
- 119-hr-4206: CONNECT for Health Act of 2025
- 119-hr-9298: Stopping Harmful and Outrageous Torts Act

## Sources
- [119-hr-3853 on Congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/3853)

## Related
- [119-hr-4669: FEMA Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-4669)
- [119-hr-2570: Maximum Pressure Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-2570)
- [119-hr-9109: Stop ANTIFA Act of 2026](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-9109)
- [119-hr-687: MERIT Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-687)
- [119-hr-4206: CONNECT for Health Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-4206)
- [119-hr-9298: Stopping Harmful and Outrageous Torts Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-9298)
- [All bills in Congress](https://policyrisk.com/legislation)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-3853 (as of 2026-04-21).