[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5070 Introduced in House (IH)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 5070

   To provide access to Federal public benefits for individuals with 
             criminal convictions, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           November 13, 2019

  Ms. Ocasio-Cortez (for herself, Ms. Meng, Mr. Clay, Ms. Tlaib, Mr. 
Garcia of Illinois, and Ms. Lee of California) introduced the following 
   bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Reform

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To provide access to Federal public benefits for individuals with 
             criminal convictions, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``A Just Society: The Mercy In Re-
entry Act''.

SEC. 2. FEDERAL PUBLIC BENEFIT ACCESSIBILITY FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH 
              CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS.

    (a) In General.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, an 
individual may not be denied any Federal public benefit solely on the 
basis that the individual was convicted of a criminal offense (whether 
under Federal, State, tribal, or foreign law).
    (b) Definition.--For purposes of this section, the term ``Federal 
public benefit'' means--
            (1) any grant, contract, loan, professional license, or 
        commercial license provided by an agency of the United States 
        or by appropriated funds of the United States; and
            (2) any retirement, welfare, health, disability, public or 
        assisted housing, postsecondary education, food assistance, 
        unemployment benefit, or any other similar benefit for which 
        payments or assistance are provided to an individual, 
        household, or family eligibility unit by an agency of the 
        United States or by appropriated funds of the United States.
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