II 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 3049 

To establish a grant program for States for purposes of modernizing criminal 

justice data infrastructure to facilitate automatic record expungement 

and sealing, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

OCTOBER 21, 2021 

Mr. VAN HOLLEN (for himself and Mr. CASEY) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To establish a grant program for States for purposes of 

modernizing criminal justice data infrastructure to facilitate automatic record expungement and sealing, and for 

other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fresh Start Act of 

5 2021’’. 

6 SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT. 

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Attorney General may make 

8 not more than 1 grant under this Act to each eligible 


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1 State. Each such grant shall be in an amount of not more 

2 than $5,000,000. 

3 (b) ELIGIBILITY.—A State shall be eligible for a 

4 grant under this Act if— 

5 (1) the State has in effect a covered 

6 expungement law; 

7 (2) the covered expungement law of the State 

8 provides that expungement or sealing of a criminal 

9 record shall not be delayed by reason of a failure to 

10 pay a fee or fine; and 

11 (3) the State submits an application to the At12 torney General, containing such information as the 

13 Attorney General may require, including, at a min14 imum— 

15 (A) information identifying whether there 

16 is a system that, as of the date of the applica17 tion, exists for record expungement or sealing 

18 in the State; 

19 (B) a description of how infrastructure 

20 created through grant funding will facilitate 

21 automatic record expungement or sealing for in22 dividuals eligible for record expungement or 

23 sealing; and 

24 (C) an identification of the anticipated 

25 number of individuals that would benefit from 


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1 the implementation of automatic record 

2 expungement or sealing infrastructure. 

3 SEC. 3. USE OF GRANT AMOUNTS. 

4 A grant under section 2 shall be used to implement 

5 a covered expungement law in accordance with the fol6 lowing: 

7 (1) Not more than 10 percent of such grant 

8 shall be used for research or planning for criminal 

9 record data infrastructure improvements that will 

10 make criminal record expungement or sealing auto11 matic. 

12 (2) Any remaining amounts shall be used to im13 plement such improvements. 

14 (3) The portion of the costs of implementing 

15 such a law provided by a grant under this section 

16 may not exceed 75 percent. 

17 SEC. 4. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS. 

18 (a) IN GENERAL.—A State receiving a grant under 

19 section 2 shall report to the Attorney General, each year 

20 of the grant term, pursuant to guidelines established by 

21 the Attorney General, information regarding the following: 

22 (1) The number of individuals eligible for auto23 matic expungement or sealing under the covered 

24 expungement law of that State, disaggregated by 

25 race, ethnicity, and gender. 


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1 (2) The number of individuals whose records 

2 have been expunged or sealed annually since the en3 actment of such law, disaggregated by race, eth4 nicity, and gender. 

5 (3) The number of individuals whose applica6 tion for expungement or sealing under such law are 

7 still pending, disaggregated by race, ethnicity, and 

8 gender. 

9 (b) INACCESSIBILITY OF DATA FOR REPORTING.—In 

10 the event that elements of the data on expungement and 

11 sealing required to be reported under subsection (a) are 

12 not able to be compiled and reported, the State shall de13 velop and report a comprehensive plan to obtain as much 

14 of the unavailable data as possible not later than the date 

15 that is 1 year after the first year of the grant being award16 ed. 

17 (c) PUBLICATION.—Not later than 1 year after the 

18 date of enactment of this Act, and each year thereafter, 

19 the Attorney General shall publish, and make available to 

20 the public, a report containing the data reported to the 

21 Attorney General under this section. 

22 SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS. 

23 In this Act: 

24 (1) Terms used have the meanings given such 

25 terms in section 901 of title I of the Omnibus Crime 


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1 Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (34 U.S.C. 

2 10251). 

3 (2) The term ‘‘automatic’’ means, with regard 

4 to the expungement or sealing of a criminal record, 

5 that such expungement or sealing occurs without 

6 any action required on the part of the State from an 

7 eligible individual. 

8 (3) The term ‘‘covered expungement law’’ 

9 means a law of a State providing for the automatic 

10 expungement or sealing, subject to such require11 ments as the State may impose, of a criminal record 

12 of an individual. 

13 SEC. 6. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. 

14 There are authorized to be appropriated $50,000,000 

15 for each of fiscal years 2022 through 2026 to carry out 

16 this Act. 

Æ 


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