Child Marriage Prevention Act of 2026

This bill would create a 10-member national commission within the Department of Health and Human Services to study child marriage in the United States and report recommendations to end it, and would require federal auditors to report on child marriage and on visas involving minors. It would offer grants to states that allow marriage under 18 to form task forces, and would increase certain federal violence-against-women grant funds for states that ban marriage under 18. It would bar marriages on federal property unless both people are at least 18 and direct the Justice Department to write a model state law setting the marriage age at 18. It would also change immigration law so that spousal and fiance visas generally require both people to be at least 18, with limited exceptions, and require separate private interviews when one party married or got engaged as a minor.

Full text and official record on Congress.gov

Sponsors

• Richard J. Durbin Democrat sponsor
• 2 cosponsors