Fresh Start Act of 2025

This legislation establishes a grant program, administered by the Attorney General, to help states modernize their criminal justice data infrastructure. Each eligible state may receive up to $5,000,000 to implement systems that facilitate **automatic record expungement and sealing** of criminal records, meaning the process occurs without requiring action from the individual. To qualify, a state must have a **covered expungement law** in effect that ensures expungement or sealing is not delayed by a failure to pay fees or fines, and its application must describe how the funds will achieve automatic expungement. Grant funds are primarily designated for implementing data infrastructure improvements to enable automatic expungement or sealing, with up to 10% allowed for research and planning. States are required to contribute at least 25% of the implementation costs. Recipients must submit annual reports to the Attorney General, detailing the number of eligible individuals, expunged records, and pending applications, disaggregated by race, ethnicity, and gender, with the Attorney General publishing these findings annually. The bill authorizes $50,000,000 for each fiscal year from 2026 through 2030 to fund this program.