A New Federal Bill Would Fund Expungement Access Nationwide

A bipartisan group of U.S. Senators introduced the Fresh Start Act this year, proposing a new Department of Justice grant program to help states build and implement automatic record expungement systems — authorizing $50 million in funding from 2026 through 2030.

The bill leans on research that's hard to argue with. A 2020 study cited by its sponsors found that people who had records expunged went on to earn wages about 22% higher within a year than their prior income trajectory would have predicted — and that within five years, only about 4.2% went on to be convicted of another offense.

The bill has drawn an unusually broad coalition of support, spanning organizations from Americans for Prosperity and the Justice Action Network to the ACLU and the Brennan Center for Justice — groups that don't agree on much else in criminal justice policy, but agree on this.

If passed, the Fresh Start Act wouldn't create new state Clean Slate laws by itself — but it would make it meaningfully cheaper and faster for states to build the ones they've already passed.

Source: Office of Senator Van Hollen, press release, 2026.