Texas Border Business
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action and Federal Rights joined Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights and Chris Coons (D-Del.) in introducing the Count the Crimes to Cut Act. The bill requires the Attorney General and the heads of other agencies to create and make available to the public lists of all federal criminal statutory offenses, including the elements for each offense.
Sen. Cruz said, “Criminal laws are opaque and scattered across thousands of pages of statutes and regulations, preventing Americans from understanding when they might be crossing into criminal conduct. Congress has a responsibility to make the criminal code knowable and accessible to enhance transparency, accountability, and clarity in federal criminal law. I’m proud to join Senators Lee and Coons in introducing this bipartisan bill.”
Sen. Lee said, “Our federal criminal code is massively over-inflated, with thousands of crimes making it impossible for anyone to fully understand the criminal liability they face. We cannot fix what we refuse to measure, and this bill ensures Congress and the public have the facts necessary to make smarter, safer policy decisions.”
Sen. Coons said, “We need to reexamine the sprawling system of federal crimes and penalties tucked into new laws and inserted into old ones that Congress has created over decades. This bipartisan, commonsense bill will create a database of all federal crimes, so lawmakers can determine the reforms needed to make the law fairer, saner, and more effective.”
The bill is cosponsored by U.S. Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.).
Click here to read the bill.
BACKGROUND:
The federal code includes thousands of offenses, but there is currently no complete, accessible list of all federal crimes, preventing citizens, businesses, and lawmakers from understanding the full scope of criminal liability. The House version of this bill, H.R. 2159, passed the House of Representatives by voice vote.
Under the Count the Crimes to Cut Act:
- The Attorney General must report a list of all federal criminal statutory offenses, including the elements for each offense, the potential criminal penalties, prosecution data from the past 15 years, and mens rea requirements.
- Heads of key federal agencies must also conduct a report with the same requirements as the Attorney General on criminal regulatory offenses enforceable by their departments.
- Both the Department of Justice and agencies must establish publicly accessible online indexes of these offenses for easy reference.
