Introduction of the Fresh Start Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Fresh Start Act, a bill I reintroduced earlier today.

If enacted, it would allow certain individuals who have been convicted of nonviolent offenses, have paid their debt to society, and are now law-abiding members of the community to petition courts to have their nonviolent conviction expunged from their records.

A criminal record, even for a minor, nonviolent offense, can pose a barrier to employment, education and housing opportunities--the very things necessary to start one's life over.

This is not only bad for rehabilitated offenders, it is bad for their families and for the community in which they live.

The Fresh Start Act would give nonviolent offenders a chance to start over again, a chance to become productive members of society.

The bill allows offenders to apply for expungement to the court where they were sentenced and allows the United States Attorney for that District to submit recommendations to the court. Applicants who are denied could reapply once every two years. Once seven years have elapsed since an offender has completed their sentence, expungement would be automatically granted. However, sex offenders and those who commit crimes causing a loss of over $25,000 would not be eligible for automatic expungement.

Finally, the bill would also encourage states to pass their own expungement laws for state offenses. States that pass a substantially similar law would receive a 5 percent increase in their Byrne funding while those that do not would lose 5 percent of their Byrne funds.

It is one thing to convict someone of a nonviolent crime. It is quite another to condemn him to a de facto life sentence for it.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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