Markey, Merkley, Jayapal, Tlaib, Pressley reintroduce bill to halt government use of facial recognition

On September 25, 2026, U.S. lawmakers led by Senator Edward J. Markey reintroduced the Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act to ban federal use of biometric surveillance. The bill responds to concerns over racial bias, citing research that Black, Brown, and Asian individuals are up to 100 times more likely to be misidentified. Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, North Yorkshire Police deployed live facial recognition in York on September 23, 2026, highlighting the global expansion of the technology.

Sponsors and supporters of the bill

• ▪The Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act is cosponsored by Senators Ron Wyden and Elizabeth Warren, alongside Representatives Greg Casar, Judy Chu, Jim McGovern, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Delia Ramirez, and Jan Schakowsky.
• ▪U.S. Senators Edward J. Markey and Jeff Merkley, alongside Representatives Pramila Jayapal, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley, reintroduced the Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act on September 25, 2026.
• ▪The Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act is endorsed by advocacy groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Fight for the Future, and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

Provisions of the proposed Moratorium Act

• ▪The Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act proposes a prohibition on the use of facial recognition, voice recognition, and gait recognition by federal entities unless authorized by an act of Congress.
• ▪The Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act, reintroduced on September 25, 2026, would condition federal grant funding for state and local law enforcement agencies on those entities enacting their own moratoria on biometric technology
• ▪The Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act, reintroduced on September 25, 2026, would prohibit the use of federal funds for biometric surveillance systems and bar the use of illegally collected biometric data in judicial proceedings

Concerns regarding bias and surveillance

• ▪Representative Rashida Tlaib stated on September 25, 2026, that facial recognition technology is racist and misidentifies Black, Brown, and Asian residents, falsely pinning them as suspects in crimes.
• ▪Research cited by sponsors of the Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act indicates that nearly half of United States adults have their faces stored in facial recognition databases
• ▪Sponsors of the Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act stated that Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection use mobile facial recognition applications to track, target, and surveil immigrant communities
• ▪Research cited by sponsors of the Facial Recognition and Biometric Technology Moratorium Act indicates that Black, Brown, and Asian individuals are up to 100 times more likely to be misidentified by facial recognition algorithms than white men

Facial recognition use by UK police forces

• ▪North Yorkshire Police stated that images not matching a watch list are deleted immediately, and the watch list is deleted at the end of each Live Facial Recognition deployment
• ▪West Yorkshire Police reported making 82 arrests using Live Facial Recognition technology between the commencement of its use in November 2025 and September 2026.
• ▪North Yorkshire Police deployed Live Facial Recognition technology in York city centre for the first time on September 23, 2026, to compare live camera footage against a watch list of wanted or missing persons.

Debatable claims

• ▪Conditioning federal grants on local biometric bans is an appropriate use of federal power
• ▪Facial recognition technology is too racially biased for law enforcement use
• ▪The US federal government should ban its agencies from using facial recognition
• ▪The public safety benefits of live facial recognition outweigh its privacy risks