House bill would ban use of federal money for DOJ's "anti-weaponization" fund

Politics Bipartisan House bill would ban use of federal money for DOJ's "anti-weaponization" fund By Caitlin Yilek Caitlin Yilek Politics Reporter Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter at CBSNews.com, based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked for the Washington Examiner and The Hill, and was a member of the 2022 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship with the National Press Foundation. Read Full Bio Caitlin Yilek May 21, 2026 / 4:41 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google Washington — Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York introduced a bill Thursday to ban the use of federal money for paying out claims from the Justice Department's new "anti-weaponization" fund.The bill, titled the Bipartisan Transparency for American Taxpayers Act, comes as Republicans fight over the nearly $1.8 billion fund that was established to compensate people who were improperly targeted or investigated by the government.The fund was created as part of a settlement of a suit by President Trump against the IRS over a leak of his tax returns, a highly unusual arrangement that has elicited strong criticism from Democrats and a growing number of Republicans on Capitol Hill. Allies and supporters of the president, including some of those involved in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, have said they plan to submit claims for payouts. Fitzpatrick and Suozzi's two-page bill says "no federal funds … may be used for the payment of any claim submitted to the Anti-Weaponization Fund, established by the Department of Justice on May 18, 2026." "Congress has a constitutional responsibility to protect taxpayer dollars and oversee federal spending," Fitzpatrick said in a statement. "Taxpayer dollars will not become a discretionary payout fund. Transparency is not optional. Accountability is not negotiable." Reps. Tom Suozzi, a Democrat from New York, left, and Brian Fitzpatrick, a Republican from Pennsylvania, at the U.S....