# 119-hr-6719: James T. Woods Act

119-hr-6719, James T. Woods Act, is a 119th Congress bill sponsored by Rep. Lee, Laurel M. [R-FL-15] (R-FL); status passed_house (as of 2026-08-11).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-6719
- As of: 2026-08-11
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Bill: 119-hr-6719
- Congress: 119
- Title: James T. Woods Act
- Status: passed_house
- Introduced: 2025-12-15
- Sponsor: Rep. Lee, Laurel M. [R-FL-15] (R-FL)
- Cosponsors: 2
- Policy area: Crime and Law Enforcement
- Touches household money: no
- Last recorded action: 2026-08-11

## Summary

**Toughen federal penalties and sentencing for online child exploitation.** The bill would direct the United States Sentencing Commission (USSC) to rewrite sentencing guidelines for child sexual abuse material, create a new federal coercion crime that targets forcing minors to self-harm or commit violence or arson, and criminalize threats to distribute images of minors even when no image exists. - Children and families: Creates a new coercion offense covering extortion, threats, fraud, deceit, duress, intimidation, harassment, humiliation, degradation, and manipulation of a person under 18. Offenses that cause or attempt to cause a child to die by suicide or to kill a person carry fines and prison up to life, while acts like killing an animal or committing arson carry prison up to 30 years. - Sentencing and prosecutors: Directs the USSC to revise guidelines for listed child-exploitation statutes and to build offense characteristics for factors like multiple online channels, group involvement, concealment, number of victims, age of the minor, and suicide as a causal factor. The revisions must reflect actual harms and prevent sentence reductions below the existing base offense level in guideline 2G2.2(a). - Threat actors and sextortion: Criminalizes threats to distribute visual depictions of minors or child pornography made to intimidate, coerce, extort, or cause substantial emotional distress even when no depiction exists, and aligns penalties with the underlying distribution offenses.

## Cosponsors (2)

- Rep. Schmidt, Derek [R-KS-2] (R-KS), 2026-01-09T00:00:00.000Z
- Rep. Gillen, Laura [D-NY-4] (D-NY), 2026-01-12T00:00:00.000Z

## Provisions PRIA read

- Criminal penalties for sextortion threats: mixed, high. If enacted, this would make it a federal crime to threaten to share an image of a minor to intimidate, coerce, extort, or cause serious emotional distress. The change would allow prosecution even if no actual image or child pornography existed when the threat was made. The bill would also add 10 ye…
- New federal crime for coercing children: mixed, high. If enacted, this would create a new federal crime that makes it illegal to coerce anyone under 18 to harm themselves or others. "Coerce" would include threats, extortion, fraud, deceit, duress, intimidation, harassment, humiliation, degradation, or manipulation. The offense would apply when done by…
- Stricter sentences for child sexual images: mixed, high. If enacted, this would require the U.S. Sentencing Commission to rewrite federal sentencing guidelines for child sexual-abuse material and related offenses. The Commission must account for many aggravating factors, like prior abuse, group participation, use of multiple online platforms, the victim'…

## Related bills

- 119-hr-4669: FEMA Act of 2025
- 119-hr-1229: United States-Israel Defense Partnership Act of 2025
- 119-hr-3151: SHIPS for America Act of 2025
- 119-hr-1262: Mikaela Naylon Give Kids a Chance Act
- 119-hr-1065: Protect Our Letter Carriers Act of 2025
- 119-hr-842: Nancy Gardner Sewell Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage Act

## Sources
- [119-hr-6719 on Congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/6719)

## Related
- [119-hr-4669: FEMA Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-4669)
- [119-hr-1229: United States-Israel Defense Partnership Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-1229)
- [119-hr-3151: SHIPS for America Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-3151)
- [119-hr-1262: Mikaela Naylon Give Kids a Chance Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-1262)
- [119-hr-1065: Protect Our Letter Carriers Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-1065)
- [119-hr-842: Nancy Gardner Sewell Medicare Multi-Cancer Early Detection Screening Coverage A…](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-842)
- [All bills in Congress](https://policyrisk.com/legislation)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-hr-6719 (as of 2026-08-11).