Sponsors (14)
The bill increases transparency about federal crimes and enforcement—helping citizens, lawyers, businesses, and Congress evaluate risk and overcriminalization—but it adds administrative burdens on agencies and risks public confusion or uneven data if information is misinterpreted or inconsistently reported.
All Americans will have clearer, centralized access to federal criminal law because DOJ must publish a searchable index of every federal statutory offense, its elements, mens rea, and penalties within two years.
People facing charges and their lawyers (and the public) will be better able to assess prosecution risk because DOJ must publish 15-year prosecution counts for each offense.
Small businesses and other regulated entities will gain clearer guidance on criminal regulatory violations because agencies must list enforceable criminal regulations, mens rea, penalties, and referral counts.
Taxpayers and small businesses could be confused or chilled because public release of detailed offense elements and enforcement counts may be misinterpreted by non-experts, creating uncertainty about criminal liability for ordinary conduct.
Federal employees at DOJ and agencies will face added administrative workload and costs to compile comprehensive 15-year enforcement data, potentially diverting resources from other work despite the bill not authorizing additional appropriations.
Taxpayers and small businesses may get uneven or incomplete transparency if agencies lacking centralized records undercount referrals or produce inconsistent data, limiting the usefulness of the published database.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires DOJ and specified agencies to inventory all federal criminal statutory and regulatory offenses, report historical enforcement counts, and publish searchable online indices.
Official title: Direct the Attorney General to submit to the Congress a report on Federal criminal offenses, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 12, 2026 by Mike Lee · Last progress February 12, 2026
Requires the Attorney General and specified federal agency heads to create and publish a complete inventory of federal criminal offenses. Agencies must report lists of criminal statutory and criminal regulatory offenses, including elements, mens rea, potential penalties, and annual enforcement/prosecution counts for the prior 15 years, and publish searchable public indices within set deadlines.