119-hr3111

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3111 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 H. R. 3111

To amend the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act to establish grants 
 for States for purposes of modernizing criminal justice data 
infrastructure to facilitate automated record sealing and expungement, 
 and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 April 30, 2025

 Ms. Lee of Florida (for herself, Ms. Kamlager-Dove, Ms. Norton, Mr. 
 McGarvey, Mr. Bacon, Mr. Crenshaw, Mr. Rutherford, and Ms. Scanlon) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
 the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

 A BILL

To amend the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act to establish grants 
 for States for purposes of modernizing criminal justice data 
infrastructure to facilitate automated record sealing and expungement, 
 and for other purposes.

 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

 This Act may be cited as the ``Fresh Start Act of 2025''.

SEC. 2. IMPLEMENTATION OF EXPUNGEMENT LAWS.

 

Section 106

    (b) of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (34 
U.S.C. 40302

    (b) ) is amended--

    (1) in paragraph

    (1) --
        (A) in subparagraph
            (C) , by striking ``and'' at the 
 end;
        (B) in subparagraph
            (D) , by striking the period and 
 inserting ``; and''; and
            (C) by adding at the end the following:
 ``
        (E) to implement a covered expungement law.''; 
 and

    (2) by adding at the end the following:
 ``

    (3) Covered expungement laws.--In this subsection:
 ``
        (A) The term `automatic' means, with regard to 
 the expungement or sealing of a criminal record, that 
 such expungement or sealing occurs without any action 
 required on the part of the State from an eligible 
 individual.
 ``
        (B) The term `covered expungement law' means a 
 law of a State providing for the automatic expungement 
 or sealing, subject to such requirements as the State 
 may impose (including provisions ensuring continued 
 access to the expunged or sealed material by courts and 
 law enforcement agencies), of a criminal record of an 
 individual, without delay by reason of a failure to pay 
 a fee or fine.
 ``

    (4) Reporting requirements.--
 ``
        (A) In general.--A State receiving a grant under 
 this section shall report to the Attorney General, each 
 year of the grant term, pursuant to guidelines 
 established by the Attorney General, information 
 regarding the following:
 ``
            (i) The number of individuals eligible 
 for automatic expungement or sealing under the 
 covered expungement law of that State, 
 disaggregated by race, ethnicity, and gender.
 ``
            (ii) The number of individuals whose 
 records have been expunged or sealed annually 
 since the enactment of such law, disaggregated 
 by race, ethnicity, and gender.
 ``
            (iii) The number of individuals whose 
 application for expungement or sealing under 
 such law are still pending, disaggregated by 
 race, ethnicity, and gender.
 ``
        (B) Inaccessibility of data for reporting.--In 
 the event that elements of the data on expungement and 
 sealing required to be reported under subparagraph
        (A)
            (i) are not able to be compiled and reported, the 
 State shall develop and report a comprehensive plan to 
 obtain as much of the unavailable data as possible not 
 later than the date that is one year after the first 
 year of the grant being awarded.
 ``
            (C) Publication.--Not later than 1 year after the 
 date of enactment of this paragraph, and each year 
 thereafter, the Attorney General shall publish, and 
 make available to the public, a report containing the 
 data reported to the Attorney General under this 
 subparagraph.''.
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