I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 59
To specify the state of mind required for conviction for criminal offenses
that lack an expressly identified state of mind, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY3, 2025
Mr. B
IGGSof Arizona (for himself and Mr. OGLES) introduced the following
bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To specify the state of mind required for conviction for
criminal offenses that lack an expressly identified state
of mind, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Mens Rea Reform Act 4
of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. STATE OF MIND ELEMENT FOR CRIMINAL OF-6
FENSES. 7
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Chapter 1 of title 18, United 8
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-9
lowing: 10
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‘‘§ 28. State of mind when not otherwise specifically 1
provided 2
‘‘(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section— 3
‘‘(1) the term ‘covered offense’— 4
‘‘(A) means an offense— 5
‘‘(i) specified in— 6
‘‘(I) this title or any other Act of 7
Congress; 8
‘‘(II) any regulation; or 9
‘‘(III) any law (including regula-10
tions) of any State or foreign govern-11
ment incorporated by reference into 12
this title or any other Act of Con-13
gress; and 14
‘‘(ii) that is punishable by imprison-15
ment, a maximum criminal fine of at least 16
$2,500, or both; and 17
‘‘(B) does not include— 18
‘‘(i) any offense set forth in chapter 19
47 or chapter 47A of title 10; or 20
‘‘(ii) any offense incorporated by sec-21
tion 13(a) of this title; 22
‘‘(2) the term ‘knowingly’, as related to an ele-23
ment of an offense, means— 24
‘‘(A) if the element involves the nature of 25
the conduct of a person or the attendant cir-26
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•HR 59 IH
cumstances, that the person is aware that the 1
conduct of the person is of that nature or that 2
such circumstances exist; and 3
‘‘(B) if the element involves a result of the 4
conduct of a person, that the person is aware 5
that it is practically certain that the conduct of 6
the person will cause such a result; 7
‘‘(3) the term ‘state of mind’ means willfully, 8
intentionally, maliciously, knowingly, recklessly, wan-9
tonly, negligently, with reason to believe, or any 10
other word or phrase that is synonymous with or 11
substantially similar to any such term; and 12
‘‘(4) the term ‘willfully’, as related to an ele-13
ment of an offense, means— 14
‘‘(A) that the person acted with knowledge 15
that the person’s conduct was unlawful; and 16
‘‘(B) if the element involves the nature, at-17
tendant circumstances, object, or result of the 18
conduct of a person, that— 19
‘‘(i) the person had knowledge of the 20
nature, attendant circumstances, object, or 21
result of the conduct of the person; and 22
‘‘(ii) it was the conscious object of the 23
person to engage in conduct— 24
‘‘(I) of that nature; 25
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•HR 59 IH
‘‘(II) with that attendant cir-1
cumstance; 2
‘‘(III) with that object; or 3
‘‘(IV) to cause such a result. 4
‘‘(b) D
EFAULTREQUIREMENT.—Except as provided 5
in subsections (c) and (d), a covered offense shall be con-6
strued to require the Government to prove beyond a rea-7
sonable doubt that the defendant acted— 8
‘‘(1) with the state of mind specified in the text 9
of the covered offense for each element of the of-10
fense for which the text specifies a state of mind; 11
and 12
‘‘(2) knowingly, with respect to any element of 13
the offense for which the text of the covered offense 14
does not specify a state of mind. 15
‘‘(c) F
AILURETODISTINGUISHAMONGELE-16
MENTS.—Except as provided in subsection (d), if the text 17
of a covered offense specifies the state of mind required 18
for commission of the covered offense without specifying 19
the elements of the covered offense to which the state of 20
mind applies, the state of mind specified shall apply to 21
all elements of the covered offense, unless a contrary pur-22
pose plainly appears. 23
‘‘(d) E
XCEPTIONS.— 24
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‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Subsections (b)(2) and (c) 1
shall not apply with respect to— 2
‘‘(A) any element for which the text of the 3
covered offense makes clear that Congress af-4
firmatively intended not to require the Govern-5
ment to prove any state of mind with respect to 6
such element; 7
‘‘(B) any element of a covered offense, to 8
the extent that the element establishes— 9
‘‘(i) subject matter jurisdiction over 10
the covered offense; or 11
‘‘(ii) venue with respect to trial of the 12
covered offense; or 13
‘‘(C) any element of a covered offense, to 14
the extent that applying subsections (b)(2) and 15
(c) to such element would lessen the degree of 16
mental culpability that the Government is re-17
quired to prove with respect to that element 18
under— 19
‘‘(i) precedent of the Supreme Court 20
of the United States; or 21
‘‘(ii) any other provision of this title, 22
any other Act of Congress, or any regula-23
tion. 24
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‘‘(2) MERE ABSENCE INSUFFICIENT .—For pur-1
poses of paragraph (1)(A), the mere absence of a 2
specified state of mind for an element of a covered 3
offense in the text of the covered offense shall not 4
be construed to mean that Congress affirmatively in-5
tended not to require the Government to prove any 6
state of mind with respect to that element. 7
‘‘(e) A
PPLICABILITY.—This section shall apply with 8
respect to a covered offense— 9
‘‘(1) without regard to whether the provision or 10
provisions specifying the covered offense are enacted, 11
promulgated, or finalized before, on, or after the 12
date of enactment of this section; and 13
‘‘(2) that was committed— 14
‘‘(A) on or after the date of enactment of 15
this section; or 16
‘‘(B) before the date of enactment of this 17
section, unless— 18
‘‘(i) applying this section to such cov-19
ered offense would— 20
‘‘(I) punish as a crime conduct 21
that was innocent when done; 22
‘‘(II) increase the punishment for 23
the covered offense; or 24
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‘‘(III) deprive a person charged 1
with the covered offense of any de-2
fense available according to law at the 3
time the covered offense occurred; 4
‘‘(ii) a jury has been empaneled and 5
sworn in a prosecution for the covered of-6
fense before the date of enactment of this 7
section; 8
‘‘(iii) the first witness has been sworn 9
in a prosecution for the covered offense 10
tried without a jury before the date of en-11
actment of this section; or 12
‘‘(iv) a sentence has been imposed fol-13
lowing a plea of guilty or nolo contendere 14
in a prosecution for the covered offense be-15
fore the date of enactment of this section. 16
‘‘(f) S
UBSEQUENTLYENACTEDLAWS.—No provision 17
of law enacted after the date of enactment of this section 18
shall be construed to repeal, modify the text or effect of, 19
or supersede in whole or in part this section, unless such 20
law specifically refers to this section and explicitly repeals, 21
modifies the text or effect of, or supersedes in whole or 22
in part this section.’’. 23
(b) T
ECHNICAL AND CONFORMINGAMENDMENT.— 24
The table of sections for chapter 1 of title 18, United 25
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•HR 59 IH
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-1
lowing: 2
‘‘28. State of mind when not otherwise specifically provided.’’.
Æ
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