# 2025-11216: Railroad Board Rewrites Its Playbook for Potential Criminal Referrals

2025-11216, Guidance on Referrals for Potential Criminal Enforcement, is a Federal Register notice from Railroad Retirement Board published 2025-06-18, effective By May 9, 2026, the Board will provide to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget a report listing criminal regulatory offenses, penalty ranges, and mens rea standards.; PRIA reads it as touching household money (as of 2026-11-03).

- Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2025-11216
- As of: 2026-11-03
- Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts.

## Facts
- Document number: 2025-11216
- Title: Guidance on Referrals for Potential Criminal Enforcement
- Type: Notice
- Agencies: Railroad Retirement Board
- Citation: 90 FR 26072
- Published: 2025-06-18
- Effective: By May 9, 2026, the Board will provide to the Director of the Office of Management and Budget a report listing criminal regulatory offenses, penalty ranges, and mens rea standards.
- Comments close: not stated
- Significant: no
- Touches household money: yes
- Regulation identifier numbers: none
- Last updated: 2026-11-03

## In one line

Railroad Board Rewrites Its Playbook for Potential Criminal Referrals

## Summary

The Railroad Retirement Board is updating how it handles possible criminal rule-breaking, following a new presidential order to fight overcriminalization. By May 9, 2026, they’ll report all criminal offenses they enforce, penalties, and proof standards to the government. This affects anyone dealing with railroad retirement rules and aims to make enforcement fairer and clearer, with no new fees or costs announced.

## Abstract

This notice describes the Railroad Retirement Board's plans to address criminally liable regulatory offenses under the recent executive order on Fighting Overcriminalization in Federal Regulations.

## Effects PRIA read

- Board must report criminal offenses to OMB: benefit, low. By May 9, 2026, the Railroad Retirement Board will give a report to the Office of Management and Budget listing all criminal regulatory offenses enforceable by the Board or the Department of Justice. The report will also list, for each offense, the range of possible criminal penalties and the mens…
- Factors for DOJ referral decisions: benefit, low. The Board announced staff should weigh specific factors before sending alleged regulatory crimes to the Department of Justice. These factors include the harm or risk of harm (including money), the possible gain to the accused, whether the accused had specialized knowledge or a related license, and…
- Board sees no current criminal regulatory offenses: benefit, low. After an initial review, the Board said it has not identified any criminal regulatory offenses that it enforces and, therefore, does not expect to refer alleged violations to the Department of Justice or create new criminal regulatory offenses in the foreseeable future. The Board noted some rules r…

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- [2026-14437](https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2026-14437): Proposed Collection; Comment Request, 2026-07-17
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- [2026-10078](https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2026-10078): Annuity Beginning and Ending Dates, 2026-05-20

## Sources
- [2025-11216 on federalregister.gov](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/06/18/2025-11216/guidance-on-referrals-for-potential-criminal-enforcement)
- [2025-11216 as published (PDF)](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-06-18/pdf/2025-11216.pdf)

## Related
- [Previous: 2025-11215, Procurement List; Deletions](https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2025-11215)
- [Next: 2025-11219, Applications for New Awards; Technical Assistance and Dissemination To Improve…](https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2025-11219)
- [All Federal Register documents](https://policyrisk.com/federal-register)

Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2025-11216 (as of 2026-11-03).