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S. 2021, Fair Chance Act 1 (December 7, 2015)

handle is hein.congrec/cbo2682 and id is 1 raw text is: 




                    CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE
                               COST ESTIMATE

                                                                  December  7, 2015


                                     S. 2021
                                Fair  Chance   Act

          As ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security
                    and Governmental  Affairs on October 7, 2015


S. 2021 would amend federal law to prevent federal employers and contractors from asking
about a job applicant's criminal history until after the applicant has received a conditional
job offer. The bill also would direct the Bureau of Justice Statistics within the Department
of Justice to issue reports to the Congress on the employment of former federal prisoners.

There is no general prohibition against hiring ex-offenders; however, regulations do
prevent their employment in certain positions. Most of the provisions of the bill would
expand on the President's directive to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to
modify federal rules and delay inquiries into the criminal history of potential employees
until later in the hiring process. Based on information from OMB and the Office of
Personnel Management,  CBO  anticipates that under S. 2021 most agencies would
experience a small increase in their administrative workload to train staff to comply with
the new regulations. CBO estimates that while the additional costs for any one agency to
comply  with the provisions of the bill would be small, in total federal administrative costs
would  increase by $2 million over the 2016-2020 period; such spending would be subject
to the availability of appropriated funds.

Enacting S. 2021 could affect direct spending by some agencies (such as the Tennessee
Valley Authority) because they are authorized to use receipts from the sale of goods, fees,
and other collections to cover their operating costs. Therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures
apply. Because most of those agencies can make adjustments to the amounts collected as
operating costs change, CBO estimates that any net changes in direct spending by those
agencies would not be significant.

Further, enacting S. 2021 could increase the collection of civil and criminal fines from
federal employees who fail to follow federal hiring procedures. Those fines are recorded in
the budget as revenues. Criminal fines are available to be spent without future
appropriation action. Therefore, enacting the legislation could increase federal revenues
and associated direct spending, but CBO estimates that such increases would not be
significant in any year.

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