Legislation Killed That Would Have Effectively Blocked Police LPR, Including Flock (Public Report)Javascript is disabled. Enable javascript to view IPVM.<br>Contact us at info@ipvm.com for help.

Legislation Killed That Would Have Effectively Blocked Police LPR, Including Flock<br>CS

Christie Smythe<br>•Published May 28, 2026 17:00 PM

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IPVM verified that a bipartisan amendment that would have effectively blocked police LPR programs nationwide was killed at a House committee markup on May 21, 2026. WIRED first reported on May 20, 2026, that the amendment would be introduced. IPVM reviewed committee markup records to confirm the outcome and investigated the lobbying connections behind its failure.

In this report, we examine the amendments, the legislators involved, the hearing's outcome, and Flock's lobbying connection to one of the sponsors.

Executive Summary

The quiet failure of Amendment 221 offers two notable takeaways. First, the amendment's existence at all marks an escalation in the political backlash against Flock. A federal spending-power ban that would have effectively ended Flock's law enforcement business nationwide reached the agenda of a major House committee, cosponsored by lawmakers from opposite ends of the political spectrum. That the amendment died quietly does not erase what its introduction signals: opposition to police LPR programs is reaching higher levels of the political agenda, and Flock is increasingly at the center of it.

Second, the outcome is a window into the potential reach of Flock's rapidly expanding lobbying operation: one of the company's registered lobbyists previously served as chief of staff to the amendment's Democratic co-sponsor, who co-sponsored the amendment but said nothing to advance it during the 14-hour hearing.

That the amendment died quietly does not erase what its introduction signals: opposition to police LPR programs is reaching higher levels of the political agenda, and Flock is increasingly at the center of it.

What Happened

The amendment, covered in WIRED's May 20, 2026, report, was submitted as Amendment 221 by Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) and Rep. Jesús García (D-IL) for the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee's markup of the $580 billion dollars BUILD America 250 Act. Both committee chairman Sam Graves (R-MO) and ranking member Rick Larsen (D-WA) voted against it.

Amendment 221 (below) ran a single sentence: any recipient of Title 23 federal highway funding, which covers roughly a quarter of all public road mileage and distributes ~$53-$57 billion dollars annually to states, could use LPR cameras for tolling only. Individual states receive anywhere from hundreds of millions of dollars to more than $5 billion dollars per year under the program. Because nearly every government entity accepts Title 23 money, the amendment would have effectively required the removal of police LPR systems nationwide. While the amendment only references Perry as a sponsor, García's office confirmed to IPVM that he also backed the measure.

Rather than waiting for courts to resolve whether mass LPR scanning violates the Fourth Amendment, the amendment used Congress's power to attach conditions to federal spending, the same mechanism used to set national drinking age and DUI standards. States can decline the money, but historically almost none do. To be clear, the amendment was not about funding for Flock — it was about the federal highway funding that states themselves would have to forgo if they continued using LPR cameras for policing. That is a political sledgehammer.

Potential Impact On Flock

For Flock, the amendment would have been existential to its core law enforcement business. Flock operates the country's largest LPR network, spanning more than 5,000 law enforcement agencies, generating roughly 20 billion plate reads per month. Because virtually every jurisdiction that deploys Flock cameras also accepts Title 23 highway funding, the amendment would have forced agencies to choose between federal road money and their Flock contracts. In practice, that means the amendment would have ended Flock's policing business nationwide. The same logic would apply to other police LPR vendors.

Responding to WIRED before the markup, Flock Chief Communications Officer Josh Thomas expressed the company's opposition, citing crime-solving benefits of the technology. Thomas said: "We hope the Committee members review this amendment carefully before heading down a similar path that would leave our first responders without the tools they need to keep residents safe."

Killed Without Debate

According to committee markup records, Amendment 221 was on the agenda but was eliminated by a vote without receiving any substantive discussion. The markup ran more than 14 hours, during which numerous other amendments were debated at length. According to the legislative record, the amendment was killed by a...