Sponsors (29)
The bill expands state access to FBI criminal-history records to standardize background checks for multistate licensing while limiting how results are shared, trading clearer vetting and administrative clarity for increased privacy risk, potential due-process complications, and added administrative costs.
State licensing authorities in states that join the interstate compact can obtain FBI criminal history records (CHRI) to perform required background checks for multistate licenses, enabling more consistent vetting of applicants across member states.
Licensing boards are limited to notifying the interstate compact Commission with only a pass/fail result and completion status, reducing wider dissemination of sensitive criminal-history details and providing greater privacy protection for applicants.
The bill defines key terms (e.g., CHRI, license, privilege, Commission, State identification bureau), clarifying lawful use and limits for background checks and helping agencies comply with and implement the compact consistently.
Applicants for multistate licenses may have FBI criminal-history information obtained and used without their consent beyond the licensing decision, risking privacy harms and errors that could affect employment or licensing outcomes.
Limiting sharing of CHRI (even to other state entities or the Commission) could impede coordinated investigations, appeals, or oversight that require fuller records, potentially slowing or complicating applicants' due-process rights.
Expanded production of FBI CHRI to state licensing authorities could increase administrative costs and impose resource burdens on the FBI and state identification bureaus, with budgetary impacts for taxpayers and state governments.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires the FBI to provide criminal history records to State licensing authorities for compact-required background checks and restricts further sharing to a binary pass/fail notice for the compact commission.
Introduced March 25, 2025 by Tracey Mann · Last progress March 25, 2025
Requires the FBI Director to provide criminal history record information (CHRI) to State licensing authorities when an interstate occupational licensing compact or its rules require a background check. The FBI must provide records through an agreement with a State law enforcement agency or State identification bureau, and states are barred from redistributing the CHRI beyond narrow limits (the compact commission may only be told that a check is complete and whether it was satisfactory or not). The law defines key terms and limits public or intergovernmental sharing of the raw records.