[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14089-14090]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


         STATEMENTS ON INTRODUCTED BILLS AND JOINT RESOLUTIONS

      By Mr. BOOKER (for himself, Mr. Johnson, Ms. Baldwin, Mrs. Ernst, 
        and Mr. Brown):
  S. 2021. A bill to prohibit Federal agencies and Federal contractors 
from requesting that an applicant for employment disclose criminal 
history record information before the applicant has received a 
conditional offer, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Homeland 
Security and Governmental Affairs.
  Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I wish to introduce the Fair Chance to 
Compete for Jobs Act of 2015 or the Fair Chance Act. This bipartisan 
bill has the support of Senators Johnson, Baldwin, Ernst, and Brown, 
and I thank them for their support. Today, a bipartisan House companion 
bill to the Fair Chance Act has also been introduced. I thank 
Congressmen Cummings, Issa, Jackson Lee, Blumenauer, Watson Coleman, 
Richmond, Conyers, and Scott for their leadership on this issue.
  Everyone deserves the dignity of work and the opportunity for a 
second chance to earn a living. But far too many Americans who return 
home from behind bars have to disclose convictions on their initial 
employment application or initial job interview that often serve as 
insurmountable barriers to employment. This legislation would ensure 
that people with convictions, who have paid their debt to society and 
want to turn their lives around, have a fair chance to work.
  By encouraging Federal employers to focus on an individual's 
qualifications and merit, and not solely on past mistakes, the Fair 
Chance Act would remove burdensome and unnecessary obstacles that 
prevent formerly incarcerated people from reaching their full potential 
and contributing to society. It would also help reduce recidivism, 
combat poverty, and prevent violence in our communities by helping 
people get back to work.
  In the last 30 years, our prison population has exploded. Since 1980, 
the Federal prison population has grown by nearly 800 percent and our 
total prison population exceeds more than 2.2 million people. Taxpayers 
are wasting billions of dollars on overcrowded prisons that crush 
priceless human potential with lengthy prison terms that have failed to 
make our communities safer. Yet, more than 90 percent of those 
sentenced to prison eventually get out and return home. Indeed, over 
600,000 people are released from prison each year.
  Equally troubling, a high number of Americans living in our 
communities have criminal convictions. About 70 million people in the 
U.S. have been arrested or convicted of a crime. That means, almost one 
in three adults in the U.S. has a criminal record. In fact, in the 
Nation's capital alone an estimated 1 in 10 D.C. residents has a 
criminal record.
  The American Bar Association has identified over 44,500 ``collateral 
consequences''--or legal constraints--placed on what individuals with 
records can do once they have been released from prison. Of those, up 
to 70 percent are related to employment.
  Without a job, it is impossible to provide for oneself and one's 
family. Yet, thousands of people with criminal convictions reenter 
society each year without employment. According to a recent New York 
Times/CBS News/Kaiser Family Foundation poll, men with criminal records 
account for about 34 percent of all nonworking men between the ages of 
25 and 54. In addition, a landmark study by Professor Devah Pager, of 
Harvard University's Department of Sociology, found that a criminal 
record reduces the likelihood of a callback or a job offer by nearly 50 
percent for men in general. African-American men with criminal records 
have been 60 percent less likely to receive a callback or job offer 
than those with criminal records. In the land of opportunity, a 
criminal conviction should not be a life sentence to unemployment.
  Today, a criminal conviction is a modern day scarlet letter that--
because of the so-called ``War on Drugs''--has had a disproportionate 
impact on communities of color. For example, African-American men with 
a conviction are 40 percent less likely to receive an interview. And 
the likelihood that Latino men with a record will receive an interview 
or be offered a job is 18 percent smaller than the likelihood for white 
men.
  Creating employment opportunities for our returning citizens benefits 
public safety. With little hope of obtaining a decent paying job, 
returning citizens are often left with few options but to return to a 
life of crime. A 2011 study in the Justice Quarterly concluded that the 
lack of employment was the single most negative determinant of 
recidivism. A report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that of 
the over 400,000 state prisoners released in 2005, 67.8 percent of them 
were re-arrested within 3 years of their release. And 76.6 percent were 
re-arrested within 5 years of their release.
  Creating employment opportunities for our returning citizens also 
strengthens our economy. Poor job prospects for people with records 
reduced our nation's gross domestic product in 2008 between $57 billion 
and $65 billion. With an integrated global economy that is becoming 
more and more competitive, it is imperative that we

[[Page 14090]]

encourage sound policy that promotes the gainful employment of 
Americans.
  A formerly incarcerated person--and later President--named Nelson 
Mandela once said, ``For to be free is not merely to cast off one's 
chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of 
others.'' The American criminal justice system is predicated on this 
ideal, the belief that an individual who has committed a crime can, and 
should be, reformed into a productive member of society over their time 
of imprisonment. The ideal that, once released from prison, that 
individual should have the opportunity to enrich himself and his 
community upon his reentry into society.
  The Fair Chance Act would help fix unemployment barriers for formerly 
incarcerated people and bring America closer to truly being a land of 
opportunity for all. It would ban the Federal Government--including the 
executive, legislative, and judicial branches--from requesting criminal 
history information from applicants until they reach the conditional 
offer stage. This bill strikes the right balance. It would allow 
qualified people with criminal records to get their foot in the door 
and be judged on their own merit. At the same time, the legislation 
would allow employers to know an individual's criminal history before 
the job applicant is hired.
  This bill would also prohibit Federal contractors from requesting 
criminal history information from candidates for positions within the 
scope of Federal contracts until the conditional offer stage. Companies 
that do business with the Federal Government and receive Federal funds 
should espouse good hiring practices. The Fair Chance Act would permit 
Federal contractors to inquire about criminal history earlier in the 
application process if a candidate would have access to classified 
information.
  The legislation includes important exceptions for sensitive positions 
where criminal history inquiries are necessary earlier in the 
application process. Exceptions are included for positions involving 
classified information, sensitive national security duties, armed 
forces, and law enforcement jobs, and for when criminal history 
information for a job is legally required prior to a conditional offer.
  Finally, this bill would require the Department of Labor, U.S. Census 
Bureau, and Bureau of Justice Statistics to issue a report on the 
employment statistics of formerly incarcerated individuals. Currently, 
no comprehensive tracking of data on the employment histories of people 
with convictions exists. This provision would change that and allow us 
to better understand the scope of the problem people with convictions 
face when trying to find a job.
  Many of the reforms in this bill have been urged for years. In 2011, 
then-Attorney General Eric Holder called for making the Federal 
Government a model employer. And the White House's My Brother Keeper's 
Initiative has endorsed fair chance reforms. Earlier this year, I was 
proud to join 26 other Senators in a letter to the President urging an 
executive order that would ban Federal contractors from asking job 
applicants about their criminal histories. But more must be done.
  States and localities have led the way on providing people with 
convictions meaningful job opportunities, and the Federal Government 
must catch up. So far 18 States, including Georgia and Nebraska, and 
over 100 cities and counties have taken steps to prohibit government 
agencies from asking job applicants about criminal convictions until 
later in the process.
  Some of the Nation's largest companies already have fair chance 
policies. Companies such as Wal-Mart, Target, Starbucks, Koch 
Industries, Home Depot, and Bed, Bath and Beyond, have reserved the 
criminal history inquiry until later in the hiring process. These 
companies know that creating economic opportunity for people with 
criminal history is not just good policy, it's good business.
  This bipartisan legislation has the support of numerous groups, 
including the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the 
American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association for the 
Advancement of Colored People, the National Employment Law Project, the 
Center for Urban Families, Bend the Arc Jewish Action, and the National 
Black Prosecutors Association.
  We are a nation built on liberty and justice for all. Once a person's 
sentence has ended, they should not continue to be forever shackled by 
their past. That turns the concept of justice upside down. It is 
contrary to who we are and what we stand for.
  President George W. Bush once said that ``America is the land of 
second chance, and when the gates of the prison open, the path ahead 
should lead to a better life.'' But far too often the road back into 
the community is paved with poverty, hopelessness, and unemployment. 
When President Obama commuted the offenses of 46 drug offenders earlier 
this year, he also affirmed that ``we have to ensure that as [formerly 
incarcerated people] do their time and pay back their debt to society, 
that we are increasing the possibility that they can turn their lives 
around.''
  The ideal that America is a place that values second chances is 
bipartisan and rooted deeply in our country's history, and the 
opportunity to turn one's life around is a fundamental principle of 
justice. With the introduction of this important criminal justice 
reform legislation, we aim to fulfill the promise of our great 
democracy and make access to the American Dream real for thousands of 
Americans who have paid their debts to society.
  The Fair Chance Act would give so many Americans a fair chance to 
obtain Federal jobs or work with Federal contractors. It would improve 
public safety, boost our economy, and adhere to our shared values of 
liberty and justice for all. I urge my fellow Senators to join me in 
supporting this important criminal justice reform bill.

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