Count the Crimes to Cut Act
Sponsored By: Senator Lee, Mike [R-UT]
Introduced
Summary
Create a public, searchable inventory of federal criminal statutes and regulatory crimes. The bill would require the Attorney General and many federal agencies to report each offense's elements, mens rea (the required mental state), and potential penalties, and to provide 15 years of prosecution or referral counts. Reports would be due within 1 year and public, searchable indexes posted within 2 years.
Show full summary
- Congressional Judiciary committees would receive a standardized catalog of statutory and regulatory crimes, making it easier to compare offenses and spot enforcement trends over a 15-year window.
- The Department of Justice would have to list every federal criminal statute with its elements and annual prosecution counts for the previous 15 years, creating a clearer record of charging patterns.
- Federal agencies named in the bill would need to identify all criminal regulatory offenses they enforce, report penalties and mens rea, and host searchable indexes on their websites.
- Researchers, defense lawyers, and the public would gain centralized, freely accessible references to an offense's elements, penalties, and mens rea, improving transparency and legal research.
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
2 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 1 costs, 0 mixed.
Public index of federal crimes
This bill would require the Attorney General to report to the House and Senate Judiciary Committees within 1 year. The Attorney General's report would list every federal criminal statute and, for each offense, the elements, potential criminal penalty, the mens rea requirement, and DOJ prosecution counts for each year of the 15 years before enactment. Within 1 year, the heads of many listed federal agencies would report all criminal regulatory offenses they enforce and, for each, the potential penalty, the mens rea requirement, and yearly counts of referrals to DOJ for the prior 15 years. Within 2 years, the Attorney General and each listed agency would publish free, public online indexes of the listed offenses on their websites.
Reports would not authorize funding
This bill would state that nothing in the section requiring reports and public indexes shall be construed to require or authorize appropriations. That means the text would not itself give agencies money to do the reports or build the public indexes. Agencies would need separate funding or congressional approval to pay for the work.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Lee, Mike [R-UT]
UT • R
Cosponsors
Sen. Coons, Christopher A. [D-DE]
DE • D
Sponsored 2/12/2026
Sen. Cruz, Ted [R-TX]
TX • R
Sponsored 2/12/2026
Sen. Booker, Cory A. [D-NJ]
NJ • D
Sponsored 2/12/2026
Roger Wicker
MS • R
Sponsored 2/12/2026
Peter Welch
VT • D
Sponsored 2/12/2026
Sen. Padilla, Alex [D-CA]
CA • D
Sponsored 3/19/2026
Amy Klobuchar
MN • D
Sponsored 3/26/2026
Sen. Graham, Lindsey [R-SC]
SC • R
Sponsored 3/26/2026
Sen. Blumenthal, Richard [D-CT]
CT • D
Sponsored 3/26/2026
Sen. Cornyn, John [R-TX]
TX • R
Sponsored 3/26/2026
Sen. Durbin, Richard J. [D-IL]
IL • D
Sponsored 3/26/2026
Sen. Scott, Rick [R-FL]
FL • R
Sponsored 4/20/2026
Sen. Paul, Rand [R-KY]
KY • R
Sponsored 4/27/2026
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
View on Congress.gov