# 119-s-5229: SWIPES Act

119-s-5229, SWIPES Act, is a 119th Congress bill sponsored by Sen. Moody, Ashley [R-FL] (R-FL); status introduced; PRIA reads it as touching household money (as of 2026-08-20).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-5229
- As of: 2026-08-20
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Bill: 119-s-5229
- Congress: 119
- Title: SWIPES Act
- Status: introduced
- Introduced: 2026-08-04
- Sponsor: Sen. Moody, Ashley [R-FL] (R-FL)
- Cosponsors: 0
- Policy area: Crime and Law Enforcement
- Touches household money: yes
- Last recorded action: 2026-08-20

## Summary

**Stronger federal penalties for gift card and elder scams.** The SWIPES Act broadens federal fraud rules to treat gift cards and many digital credentials as access devices and creates a separate penalty for crimes that target people over 60. - Seniors: Adds a new offense that tacks on a mandatory consecutive 2-year prison term for felony frauds committed against people over 60. That sentence is not probationable and generally must run separately from other sentences. - Online collectors and fraudsters: Expands access-device liability to cover directly or indirectly obtaining devices, including creating or running websites that collect access device information. The law explicitly lists gift cards, passwords, cryptographic keys, passkeys, one-time passwords, hardware security keys, and similar credentials. - Penalties and money laundering: Raises maximum prison terms for access-device crimes up to 30 years in the most serious cases and creates escalated penalties when offenders handle large numbers of counterfeit or unauthorized devices. The bill also adds gift cards to the statutory list of "monetary instruments" for money-laundering law.

## Provisions PRIA read

- Higher penalties for senior fraud: benefit, medium. This bill would add a 2‑year prison enhancement for felony frauds committed against people age 60 or older. "Knowingly" would include actual knowledge of the victim's age, deliberate ignorance of age, or reckless disregard of age. The extra two years would not be served on probation and would gener…
- Tougher rules for gift‑card fraud: mixed, medium. This bill would widen federal access‑device crimes to cover gift cards and many digital credentials. It would make it a crime to get or use those devices, including by running a website that collects them. The bill would add the words "or other assets" after "transfer of funds," and would name inst…

## Related bills

- 119-s-2120: Older Americans Act Reauthorization Act of 2025
- 119-s-1541: SHIPS for America Act of 2025
- 119-s-4952: Protecting American Taxpayers Act
- 119-s-4378: Protecting American Taxpayers Act
- 119-s-1748: Kids Online Safety Act
- 119-s-4328: FLEX Act

## Sources
- [119-s-5229 on Congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/5229)

## Related
- [119-s-2120: Older Americans Act Reauthorization Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-2120)
- [119-s-1541: SHIPS for America Act of 2025](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-1541)
- [119-s-4952: Protecting American Taxpayers Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-4952)
- [119-s-4378: Protecting American Taxpayers Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-4378)
- [119-s-1748: Kids Online Safety Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-1748)
- [119-s-4328: FLEX Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-4328)
- [All bills in Congress](https://policyrisk.com/legislation)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-5229 (as of 2026-08-20).