Sponsors (2)
The bill reduces prosecutions and legal exposure for minor or outdated federal offenses—benefiting taxpayers, businesses, and federal workers—at the cost of weakening some deterrents and statutory protections, which may raise public‑safety, regulatory, and legal‑certainty risks.
Taxpayers and ordinary Americans will face fewer prosecutions for archaic or trivial federal offenses (e.g., small bad checks, mailbox/formality mistakes), reducing criminalization for minor conduct.
Federal employees (postal workers, mint employees, other agency staff) will have reduced legal exposure and risk of prosecution because outdated or overbroad offenses are narrowed or repealed.
Private individuals and businesses will likely incur lower legal and compliance costs because some previously prosecutable activities are decriminalized or carry less enforcement risk.
Law enforcement, local governments, and the public could face weaker deterrence and fewer legal tools to prevent misconduct (e.g., mail theft, impersonation of carriers), which may increase unlawful acts and harm to communities.
Consumers, farmers, and the public could face increased public‑health and agricultural risks if narrowing statutes create regulatory gaps at agencies (FDA, USDA) without clear replacement protections.
Public property and mail infrastructure (including Capitol grounds and mailed items) may have reduced statutory protection, raising risks to property integrity and the security of mailed items.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Repeals or narrows a set of old federal criminal laws to remove criminal penalties for minor or obsolete acts and edits related statutory language.
Introduced January 3, 2025 by Andrew S. Biggs · Last progress January 3, 2025
Repeals and trims a set of old or minor federal criminal rules that make trivial or historical acts into federal crimes. It lists examples of such minor acts, removes several specific criminal provisions across multiple titles of the U.S. Code, and makes a few textual edits to other criminal statutes. The bill does not create new funding, programs, or deadlines.