Senator Coons celebrates advancement of Count the Crimes to Cut Act

WASHINGTON – Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) celebrated the Senate Judiciary Committee’s voice vote to advance the Count the Crimes to Cut Act, a bipartisan, bicameral bill aimed at addressing the bloated federal criminal code.
The Count the Crimes to Cut Act will help create a modern federal criminal code that ensures federal resources are used in a way that best supports public safety. Currently, the full scope of criminal liability remains unknown to citizens, businesses, and even lawmakers. There is no complete, accessible list of all federal crimes. The federal code includes thousands of offenses.
Senator Coons is joined by original co-sponsors Senators Mike Lee (R-Utah), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), and Peter Welch (D-Vt.). This bipartisan bill, which already passed the House of Representatives by voice vote, restores transparency and accountability to the federal criminal code.
“We need to reexamine the sprawling system of federal crimes and penalties tucked into new laws and lingering in old ones that Congress has created over decades,”said Senator Chris Coons. “I’m glad my colleagues on the Judiciary Committee moved this bipartisan, commonsense bill forward, so lawmakers can determine the reforms needed to make the law fairer, saner, and more effective.”
Under the Count the Crimes to Cut Act:
The bill has been endorsed by the Due Process Institute, the National District Attorneys Association, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Federal Defenders, Families Against Mandatory Minimums, the R Street Institute, and Right on Crime.
Read the full text of the billhere.