Sponsors
The bill expands and clarifies federal-to-state/local/tribal sharing of criminal-history and sentencing records to improve law‑enforcement coordination and legal certainty, but does so at the cost of increased privacy and civil‑liberties risks for individuals and added operational burdens for government agencies.
State and local law enforcement agencies and public-safety/training (PST) agencies will receive expanded access to federal sentencing and criminal-history records, improving interagency coordination, background checks and case processing.
U.S. territories and tribal governments are explicitly included as covered jurisdictions, reducing legal uncertainty and making cross-jurisdictional data sharing clearer for local and tribal authorities.
The Department of Justice must update its regulations within 180 days, giving agencies and recipients a clear and relatively prompt implementation timeline for the new information-sharing rules.
Individuals (including people with disabilities and racial/ethnic minorities) face greater privacy and civil‑liberties risks because broader sharing and broad definitions increase the chance of improper disclosure or misuse of sensitive criminal‑history and investigative information.
Federal and recipient state/local agencies will incur operational and compliance costs (staff time, systems changes, and agreement management) to implement the new rules and information‑sharing arrangements.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Clarifies that federal criminal justice records may be shared with state peace officer standards and training agencies, states, tribes, cities, penal institutions, and authorized federal officials; DOJ must update regulations within 180 days.
Introduced September 8, 2025 by Derek Schmidt · Last progress September 8, 2025
Amends 28 U.S.C. § 534 to clarify that federal criminal justice records and information may be shared with authorized federal officials, states (including state sentencing commissions and state peace officer standards and training agencies), Indian tribes, cities, and penal institutions for official uses. The change also restructures and expands definitions (including explicit definitions of “peace officer standards and training agency” and an inclusive list of “State”) and directs the Attorney General to revise the Department of Justice regulations in part 20 of title 28, Code of Federal Regulations within 180 days of enactment.