II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 256
To require the President to publish a statement of reasons for pardons,
and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY25, 2025
Mr. B
LUMENTHALintroduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
A BILL
To require the President to publish a statement of reasons
for pardons, 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 ‘‘Pardon Transparency 4
and Accountability Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 6
In this Act: 7
(1) E
XECUTIVE CLEMENCY .—The term ‘‘execu-8
tive clemency’’— 9
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(A) means any exercise by the President of 1
the power to grant reprieves or pardons under 2
clause 1 of section 2 of article II of the Con-3
stitution of the United States; and 4
(B) includes any pardon, commutation, re-5
prieve, or remission of a fine. 6
(2) V
ICTIM.—The term ‘‘victim’’ has the mean-7
ing given the term in section 503(e) of the Victims’ 8
Rights and Restitution Act of 1990 (34 U.S.C. 9
20141(e)). 10
SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF REASONS FOR PARDONS. 11
On the date on which any grant of executive clemency 12
is made, the President shall publish in the Federal Reg-13
ister and on the official website of the President a written 14
explanation of the reasons for granting such executive 15
clemency. 16
SEC. 4. DUTIES OF THE PARDON ATTORNEY. 17
(a) J
USTICEIMPACTSTATEMENT.—The Pardon At-18
torney shall, as soon as the Pardon Attorney becomes 19
aware of any potential grant of executive clemency being 20
considered by the President, begin preparing a Justice Im-21
pact Statement, which shall be made available to the 22
President and Congress as soon as practicable but not 23
later than 30 days after the date on which the Pardon 24
Attorney becomes so aware, and which shall include— 25
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(1) a description of the efforts of the Pardon 1
Attorney— 2
(A) to contact victims as required under 3
subsection (c)(1); and 4
(B) to make each determination required 5
under paragraphs (2) and (3) of subsection (c); 6
and 7
(2) any written statement submitted by a victim 8
under subsection (c)(1). 9
(b) N
OTIFICATION.—Any employee of the Depart-10
ment of Justice or Executive Office of the President who 11
learns that the President is considering a grant of execu-12
tive clemency shall immediately inform the Pardon Attor-13
ney of such consideration. 14
(c) D
ETERMINATIONS REQUIRED.—In the prepara-15
tion of any Justice Impact Statement under subsection 16
(a), the Pardon Attorney shall make all reasonable efforts 17
to— 18
(1) inform the victims of any crime committed 19
by the person receiving a grant of executive clem-20
ency that they may submit written statements for 21
inclusion in the Justice Impact Statement prepared 22
by the Pardon Attorney; 23
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(2) determine the opinions of the victims de-1
scribed in paragraph (1) regarding the potential 2
grant of executive clemency; and 3
(3) determine the opinions of the Attorney Gen-4
eral, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and other 5
Federal, State, local, and Tribal law enforcement of-6
ficials, as appropriate, as to the potential impact of 7
the grant of executive clemency on the success of 8
any ongoing investigation or prosecution. 9
(d) J
USTICEIMPACTSTATEMENTCOMPLETION.— 10
The Justice Impact Statement required under subsection 11
(a) shall be completed and submitted even if submitted 12
after executive clemency is granted. 13
SEC. 5. PARDON LOBBYING DISCLOSURE. 14
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—Section 3 of the Lobbying Disclo-15
sure Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1602) is amended— 16
(1) in paragraph (8)— 17
(A) in subparagraph (A)— 18
(i) in clause (iii), by striking ‘‘or’’ 19
after the semicolon; 20
(ii) in clause (iv), by striking the pe-21
riod and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and 22
(iii) by adding at the end the fol-23
lowing: 24
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‘‘(v) the issuance of a grant of execu-1
tive clemency, as defined in section 2 of 2
the Pardon Transparency and Account-3
ability Act of 2025, in the form of a par-4
don, commutation of sentence, reprieve, or 5
remission of fine.’’; and 6
(B) in subparagraph (B)(xii), by striking 7
‘‘made to’’ and inserting ‘‘except as provided in 8
subparagraph (A)(v), made to’’; and 9
(2) in paragraph (10), by inserting after the 10
word ‘‘period’’ the following: ‘‘, or any individual 11
who is employed or retained by a client for financial 12
or other compensation for services that include not 13
fewer than 1 lobbying contact relating to a potential 14
grant of executive clemency, as defined in section 2 15
of the Pardon Transparency and Accountability Act 16
of 2025, regardless of the percent of the services 17
provided by the individual to that client that consist 18
of lobbying activities.’’ 19
(b) R
EGISTRATION OFLOBBYISTS.—Section 4 of the 20
Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1603) is 21
amended by adding at the end the following: 22
‘‘(e) R
EGISTRATIONRELATING TOGRANTS OFEXEC-23
UTIVECLEMENCY.—Not later than 2 days after the date 24
on which a lobbyist first makes a lobbying contact per-25
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taining to a potential grant of executive clemency, as de-1
fined in section 2 of the Pardon Transparency and Ac-2
countability Act of 2025, or is employed or retained to 3
make a lobbying contact pertaining to a potential grant 4
of executive clemency, as so defined in that Act, whichever 5
is earlier, such lobbyist (or the organization employing 6
such lobbyist) shall register with the Secretary of the Sen-7
ate and the Clerk of the House of Representatives in ac-8
cordance with the requirements of this section, regardless 9
of the total income or expenses related to such lobbying 10
activities.’’. 11
(c) R
EPORTS BYREGISTEREDLOBBYISTS.—Section 12
5 of the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 (2 U.S.C. 1604) 13
is amended by adding at the end the following: 14
‘‘(f) L
OBBYINGCONTACTSRELATING TOEXECUTIVE 15
C
LEMENCY.—Not later than 2 days after a lobbying con-16
tact pertaining to a potential grant of executive clemency, 17
as defined in section 2 of the Pardon Transparency and 18
Accountability Act of 2025, each registrant shall file a re-19
port with the Secretary of the Senate and the Clerk of 20
the House of Representatives containing the information 21
described in subsection (b) relating to the lobbying contact 22
pertaining to the potential grant of executive clemency.’’. 23
SEC. 6. STUDIES AND REPORTS. 24
(a) S
TUDIES.— 25
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(1) IN GENERAL.—Beginning on the date that 1
is 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, 2
and every other year thereafter, the Pardon Attor-3
ney shall conduct a study on the extent of compli-4
ance or noncompliance with this Act. 5
(2) R
EPORTS TO CONGRESS .—Not later than 6
April 1 of each year following the completion of the 7
study required under subsection, the Pardon Attor-8
ney shall submit to Congress a report containing the 9
findings of the study and any recommendations to 10
improve compliance with this Act. 11
SEC. 7. SEVERABILITY. 12
If any provision of this Act, an amendment made by 13
this Act, or the application of such a provision or amend-14
ment to any particular person or circumstance is held in-15
valid, the remaining provisions of this Act and the amend-16
ments made by this Act, and the application of such re-17
maining provisions and amendments to any other person 18
or circumstance, shall not be affected thereby. 19
Æ
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