What Is CORCA? The Organized Retail Crime Act Bill Explained

The Combating Organized Retail Crime Act, known as CORCA, is a bipartisan federal bill that would create a national coordination center at the Department of Homeland Security, give federal prosecutors new tools to build cases against multi-state theft rings, and toughen penalties for cargo theft and laundering the proceeds. The House passed it 348 to 60 on May 12, 2026. The Senate version, S. 1404, is still sitting in the Judiciary Committee.¹²

What the Bill Would Actually Do

CORCA’s centerpiece is a new Organized Retail and Supply Chain Crime Coordination Center inside Homeland Security Investigations at DHS. The center would act as a clearinghouse for intelligence shared among federal, state, and local law enforcement and private-sector partners. It would be authorized for seven years and would have to stand up within 90 days of enactment.³

The rest of the bill changes federal criminal law under Title 18 in four ways.

Prosecutors would be allowed to aggregate the value of stolen goods across a 12-month period to reach the $5,000 threshold for federal charges under Sections 2314 and 2315, which cover the interstate transportation and sale of stolen goods. The point is to let federal authorities build one case out of a pattern of smaller thefts linked to the same network, rather than needing each theft to clear the threshold on its own.⁴

Courts would gain authority to order criminal forfeiture of assets on conviction for offenses involving interstate shipments (Section 659) and the transportation or sale of stolen goods (Sections 2314 and 2315).⁴

The definition of “monetary instrument” in the federal money laundering statutes would be broadened to include gift cards and prepaid cards, and organized retail and supply chain theft offenses would become predicate crimes for money laundering charges.³

Finally, the bill authorizes grants, technical assistance, and training for state and local agencies working these cases.⁵ A seven-year sunset and annual reporting requirements let Congress see whether the new authorities are producing results before renewing them.⁶

Where the Bill Stands Now

Representative Dave Joyce of Ohio introduced H.R. 2853 in April 2025 with a bipartisan slate of original cosponsors, and Senators Chuck Grassley and Catherine Cortez Masto introduced the companion S. 1404 the same month; that Senate version eventually picked up 26 bipartisan cosponsors.⁷⁸

After a House Judiciary hearing in December 2025 and a January 2026 markup, the House passed the bill in May 2026.³ Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he would keep working to move the legislation, but as of mid-2026 S. 1404 remained referred to his committee with no markup or floor vote scheduled.² Nothing in CORCA takes effect unless the Senate passes it and the president signs it.

The Problem Congress Is Responding To

Backers describe organized retail crime as coordinated rings that steal in bulk across state lines and move the goods through online marketplaces and fencing operations, distinct from ordinary shoplifting. The International Council of Shopping Centers put 2025 organized retail crime losses at $9 billion, up 9 percent from the prior year, with 10 percent of offenders responsible for 68 percent of the value stolen.⁹

The Association of American Railroads counted more than 75,000 theft incidents against major U.S. railroads in 2025, with losses over $200 million and a year-over-year increase above 50 percent. The industry says only about one in 10 attempts leads to an arrest.⁵¹⁰

A National Retail Federation study from October 2025 reported an 18 percent rise in average shoplifting incidents in 2024 versus 2023, and a 17 percent rise in threats or acts of violence during those events. Two-thirds of responding retailers said a transnational crime group had been involved in thefts against their company in the past year.¹¹

The picture is not uniform. Shoplifting reports fell an average of 12 percent in the first half of 2025 compared with the same period a year earlier, Target reported shrink rates dropping below pre-pandemic levels, and states have passed more than 80 organized retail crime laws over the preceding four years.¹²

Who Supports the Bill

The Retail Industry Leaders Association, which represents more than 200 retailers and manufacturers, led a November 2025 letter to Congress urging passage and tying organized retail crime to drug trafficking, human trafficking, and money laundering.¹³ The National Retail Federation has also advocated for the bill. Walmart did not sign the industry letter and did not publicly state a position.¹⁴

The National Grocers Association, whose members it says operate on margins of about 1.5 percent, argued that theft costs and security spending are hard for independent stores to absorb and that organized retail crime threatens workers and shoppers.¹⁵ The Association of American Railroads and the Intermodal Association of North America endorsed the bill on the freight side, describing cargo theft as the work of sophisticated networks with ties to transnational organized crime.¹⁶

Who Opposes It and Why

Almost all of the 60 House votes against the bill came from progressive Democrats; the sole Republican no vote was Representative Keith Self of Texas.¹⁷ Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Maxine Waters were among the no votes.¹⁸

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the ACLU, the NAACP, and allied groups have argued that the 12-month aggregation provision would pull low-level, poverty-driven shoplifting into the federal system rather than targeting only sophisticated rings, and that because poverty rates correlate with race, the effect would fall disproportionately on communities of color. They cited research they said shows harsher sentences do not reduce crime and called instead for economic support, housing, education, and diversion programs.¹⁹

The Vera Institute of Justice called CORCA “a surveillance bill, not a safety bill,” arguing that placing the coordination center inside Homeland Security Investigations would give DHS broad authority to collect, analyze, and share personal data without adequate civil liberties safeguards. Vera also said the retail theft crisis has been overstated, pointing to the National Retail Federation’s earlier retraction of data that had overstated organized theft’s share of merchandise losses. Forty organizations signed a letter opposing the bill before the House vote.²⁰

Supporters respond that the aggregation tool is aimed at networks, not individual shoplifters, and that the seven-year sunset and annual reports give Congress a chance to check whether the new powers are used as intended.⁶

A Note on the Other CORCA

The same acronym is used by the Carolinas Organized Retail Crime Alliance, a regional group in North and South Carolina that connects retailers and law enforcement, holds quarterly meetings and an annual conference, offers loss prevention education, and gives members access to the Auror intelligence-sharing platform. Law enforcement membership is free. The Carolinas alliance is not formally connected to the federal legislation, though both address the same underlying problem.²¹²²

1
U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Grassley Cheers House Passage of Combating Organized Retail Crime Act
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Congress.gov. S.1404 – Combating Organized Retail Crime Act
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GovInfo. House Report 119-471, Combating Organized Retail Crime Act of 2025
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U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. CORCA Summary
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Association of American Railroads. CORCA
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R Street Institute. CORCA Is the Right Start on Organized Retail Crime
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U.S. House of Representatives – Dave Joyce. Joyce Introduces Bipartisan Bicameral Legislation to Bolster Federal Response to Organized Retail Crime
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U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Support Grows for Grassley’s Combating Organized Retail Crime Act
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ICSC. Organized Retail Crime Report, Spring 2026
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FreightWaves. Railroads Cheer Crime Bill Passage, Want DOJ to Gear Up Supply Chain Theft Fight
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National Retail Federation. New Study Finds Retailers Continue to Contend With Rising Levels of Theft and Violence
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CNN. Shoplifting Crime: Home Depot, Target
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Retail Industry Leaders Association. Letter Urges Swift Passage of CORCA
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Retail Dive. Retailers Push Anti-Theft Legislation Before 2025 Ends
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National Grocers Association. NGA Applauds House Passage of Combating Organized Retail Crime Act
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Association of American Railroads. Railroads Applaud Bipartisan Legislation to Combat Supply Chain and Retail Theft
17
Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives. Roll Call 157
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GovTrack. H.R. 2853 Vote, Roll Call 157
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The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Civil Rights Groups’ Opposition to the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act
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Vera Institute of Justice. Everyone Deserves to Feel Safe, but Legislation Like CORCA Is Not the Answer
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CORCA. Carolinas Organized Retail Crime Alliance
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North Carolina Retail Merchants Association. CORCA