# 119-s-5281: Consumer Advocacy and Protection Act of 2026

119-s-5281, Consumer Advocacy and Protection Act of 2026, is a 119th Congress bill sponsored by Sen. Welch, Peter [D-VT] (D-VT); status introduced; PRIA reads it as touching household money (as of 2026-09-10).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-5281
- As of: 2026-09-10
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Bill: 119-s-5281
- Congress: 119
- Title: Consumer Advocacy and Protection Act of 2026
- Status: introduced
- Introduced: 2026-08-06
- Sponsor: Sen. Welch, Peter [D-VT] (D-VT)
- Cosponsors: 4
- Policy area: Commerce
- Touches household money: yes
- Last recorded action: 2026-09-10

## Summary

**Raises civil penalties and ties them to inflation for Consumer Product Safety Act violations.** The bill increases the maximum fine per violation, removes an aggregate cap on related-series penalties, and sets a formal annual CPI-based update process. - Manufacturers and sellers: Face a higher per-violation maximum fine of $250,000 (up from $100,000). Removing the prior $15 million cap for related-series violations allows larger penalties for multi-violation conduct within a related series. - Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC): Must determine and publish the inflation-adjusted maximum penalty in the Federal Register within one year of enactment and no later than January 15 each year thereafter. The annual adjustment uses the CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) from October and is rounded to the nearest dollar. The Commission can skip an adjustment if Congress raised the penalty by more than the calculated increase in the prior 12 months. - Statutory wording fixes: Minor technical edits update wording for clarity, including changing "man" to "person" and correcting a punctuation error.

## Cosponsors (4)

- Sen. Blumenthal, Richard [D-CT] (D-CT), 2026-08-06T00:00:00.000Z
- Sen. Luján, Ben Ray [D-NM] (D-NM), 2026-08-06T00:00:00.000Z
- Sen. Markey, Edward J. [D-MA] (D-MA), 2026-08-06T00:00:00.000Z
- Sen. Schatz, Brian [D-HI] (D-HI), 2026-08-06T00:00:00.000Z

## Provisions PRIA read

- Higher safety fines for businesses: cost, high. This bill would raise the maximum civil penalty for each Consumer Product Safety Act violation from $100,000 to $250,000. It would expand the listed covered violations to include subsections (11), (12), (15), and (16). It would remove the statutory $15,000,000 cap that limited penalties for any rel…
- Annual inflation updates for fines: cost, low. This bill would require the Consumer Product Safety Commission to set and publish an inflation-adjusted maximum civil penalty for an individual violation within one year after enactment and by January 15 each year after. The annual increase would be the percent change in the Consumer Price Index fo…

## Related bills

- 119-s-2823: FAMILY Act
- 119-s-51: Washington, D.C. Admission Act
- 119-s-5108: Right to IVF Act of 2026
- 119-s-1503: Equality Act
- 119-s-1232: Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act
- 119-s-2845: Billionaires Income Tax Act

## Sources
- [119-s-5281 on Congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/5281)

## Related
- [119-s-2823: FAMILY Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-2823)
- [119-s-51: Washington, D.C. Admission Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-51)
- [119-s-5108: Right to IVF Act of 2026](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-5108)
- [119-s-1503: Equality Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-1503)
- [119-s-1232: Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-1232)
- [119-s-2845: Billionaires Income Tax Act](https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-2845)
- [All bills in Congress](https://policyrisk.com/legislation)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/legislation/119-s-5281 (as of 2026-09-10).