The most prominent dual citizenship bill in Congress right now would end the practice, not expand it. The Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025 (S. 3283), introduced by Senator Bernie Moreno of Ohio on December 1, 2025, would give every existing dual citizen one year to renounce either their foreign or their U.S. citizenship, and would treat inaction as voluntary relinquishment of U.S. nationality. A House companion, the Disqualifying Dual Loyalty Act of 2025 (H.R. 5817), was introduced by Representative Randy Fine of Florida on October 24, 2025. Neither bill has moved past introduction, and both face a serious constitutional obstacle in longstanding Supreme Court precedent.
What the Senate Bill Would Do
The core of S. 3283 is one sentence: “an individual may not be a citizen or national of the United States while simultaneously possessing any foreign citizenship.”1Congress.gov. S 3283 – Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025 From that premise the bill builds two separate mechanisms.
For future acquisitions, any U.S. citizen who voluntarily takes on a foreign citizenship after enactment would be “deemed to have relinquished United States citizenship” automatically. No form, no hearing, no notice.
For existing dual citizens, the bill sets a one-year window running from the date of enactment. Within that year, you would have to file a written renunciation of your foreign citizenship with the Secretary of State, or a written renunciation of your U.S. citizenship with the Secretary of Homeland Security. If you do neither, you “shall be deemed to have voluntarily relinquished United States citizenship” under 8 U.S.C. 1481(a), the federal statute governing loss of nationality.1Congress.gov. S 3283 – Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025 Silence would be treated the same as active surrender of your U.S. citizenship.
Anyone deemed to have lost citizenship under the bill would be recorded as an alien across federal systems, with the Secretary of State coordinating with the Attorney General and the Department of Homeland Security.2U.S. Senate (Office of Senator Bernie Moreno). Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025 The bill gives the government 180 days after enactment to publish implementing regulations, meaning the one-year clock for existing dual citizens would begin running before the enforcement machinery is fully built out.
The House Companion Bill
H.R. 5817, the Disqualifying Dual Loyalty Act of 2025, was introduced on October 24, 2025.3Congress.gov. HR 5817 – Disqualifying Dual Loyalty Act of 2025 The full readable text has not yet been posted on Congress.gov, and the bill remains in introductory posture with no committee action. Its title and framing point toward the same goal of restricting or penalizing dual citizenship, approached from a different angle than the Senate bill.
Where the Bills Stand
S. 3283 was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee on introduction.4Congress.gov. S 3283 – Exclusive Citizenship Act of 2025 H.R. 5817 sits in a comparable early posture in the House. Neither has received hearings, markups, or floor votes as of early 2026. Most immigration bills introduced in Congress never advance past committee.
The Constitutional Problem
Both bills run into a wall built by the Supreme Court in 1967. In Afroyim v. Rusk, the Court held that “Congress has no power under the Constitution to divest a person of his United States citizenship absent his voluntary renunciation thereof.”5Justia U.S. Supreme Court. Afroyim v Rusk, 387 US 253 (1967) The Court grounded that rule in the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, calling it a protection against “congressional forcible destruction” of citizenship.
Vance v. Terrazas (1980) added a further requirement. Even when a citizen performs one of the acts listed in the expatriation statute, the government must prove the person specifically “intended to relinquish his citizenship,” not merely that they voluntarily performed the act.6Library of Congress. Vance v Terrazas, 444 US 252 (1980) The government carries the burden of proof, though at a preponderance-of-the-evidence standard.
The current loss-of-nationality statute, 8 U.S.C. 1481, reflects that requirement. It lists acts that can trigger loss of citizenship, including naturalizing in a foreign state and swearing allegiance to a foreign government, but each trigger applies only when the person acted “with the intention of relinquishing United States nationality.”7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1481 – Loss of Nationality by Native-Born or Naturalized Citizen The Exclusive Citizenship Act works around that requirement by defining inaction as voluntary relinquishment. Whether a court would accept the failure to file a form as proof of intent to give up citizenship is the central legal question the bill would raise if enacted.
What Current Law Says While the Bills Are Pending
Until any bill passes, U.S. law permits dual citizenship. The State Department’s position is that “U.S. law does not require a U.S. citizen to choose between U.S. citizenship and another (foreign) nationality,” and “a U.S. citizen may naturalize in a foreign state without any risk to their U.S. citizenship.”8U.S. Department of State. Dual Nationality
The naturalization oath includes language about renouncing “all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty,” but the U.S. government treats this as a statement of commitment rather than a legally operative renunciation of foreign citizenship.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 8 USC 1448 – Oath of Renunciation and Allegiance Whether a foreign country treats the oath as effective is a question of that country’s law.
The Financial Trap If the Bill Passed
The Exclusive Citizenship Act does not itself impose a tax, but existing federal tax law would turn a forced choice into a serious bill for some dual citizens. Renouncing U.S. citizenship, or being deemed to have done so, can trigger the expatriation tax under the Internal Revenue Code.
You are a “covered expatriate” subject to the exit tax if your average annual net income tax for the five years before expatriation exceeds the inflation-adjusted threshold ($206,000 for 2025), your net worth is $2 million or more, or you cannot certify full tax compliance for the prior five years.10Internal Revenue Service. Expatriation Tax The exit tax treats all your assets as sold at fair market value the day before expatriation and taxes the built-in gains above an exclusion amount ($890,000 for 2025). Gifts and bequests from a covered expatriate to U.S. persons are separately taxed under IRC Section 2801.
Under S. 3283, a dual citizen who missed the one-year window, or who chose to keep their foreign citizenship, could face that exit tax on assets accumulated over a lifetime, based on a change in status they did not choose in any conventional sense.
What to Do Now
The realistic near-term probability of either bill becoming law is low, but the tail risk points in one direction. If you hold citizenship in another country, the least useful place to be if the legal ground shifts is out of compliance on U.S. tax filings, foreign account reports, or identity documents. Executive Order 14160, signed in January 2025, restricted birthright citizenship recognition for certain categories of children born in the U.S., which shows an executive-branch willingness to tighten citizenship policy independent of Congress. Keeping your U.S. returns, FBAR filings, and passport records current is the practical step available while the bills sit in committee.