I 
118TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2983 
To amend the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act to establish grants 
for States for purposes of modernizing criminal justice data infrastruc-
ture to facilitate automated record sealing and expungement, and for 
other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 27, 2023 
Mr. TRONE (for himself, Ms. MACE, Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER, Mr. BACON, 
Mr. FITZPATRICK, Mr. ARMSTRONG, Mr. CRENSHAW, Ms. SCANLON, Mr. 
HARDER of California, Mr. MEUSER, Ms. KUSTER, Mr. WENSTRUP, and 
Ms. NORTON) 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 auto-
mated record sealing and expungement, and for other 
purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fresh Start Act of 
2023’’. 
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SEC. 2. IMPLEMENTATION OF EXPUNGEMENT LAWS. 
Section 106(b) of the Brady Handgun Violence Pre-
vention 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 re-
gard to the expungement or sealing of a crimi-
nal 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 auto-
matic expungement or sealing, subject to such 
requirements as the State may impose (includ-
ing provisions ensuring continued access to the 
expunged or sealed material by courts and law 
enforcement agencies), of a criminal record of 
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an individual, without delay by reason of a fail-
ure to pay a fee or fine. 
‘‘(4) REPORTING REQUIREMENTS.— 
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—A State receiving a 
grant under this section shall report to the At-
torney General, each year of the grant term, 
pursuant to guidelines established by the Attor-
ney General, information regarding the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(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 an-
nually since the enactment of such law, 
disaggregated by race, ethnicity, and gen-
der. 
‘‘(iii) The number of individuals 
whose application for expungement or seal-
ing under such law are still pending, 
disaggregated by race, ethnicity, and gen-
der. 
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‘‘(B) INACCESSIBILITY OF DATA FOR RE-
PORTING.—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 para-
graph, 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 subpara-
graph.’’. 
Æ 
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