States can now access FBI criminal records to check police officers.
H.R. 8352 — Criminal History Access Act · Filed by Derek Schmidt (R-KS) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Apr 16, 2026 · Passed chamber
Your members of Congress
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What it does
This bill lets state agencies access FBI criminal history records. These agencies train and certify police officers. Right now they cannot see those records directly. The Attorney General must write rules within 180 days.
Who it affects
State agencies that certify police officers will use the records. Police officers may face stricter checks when applying for jobs.
One thing to notice
The bill does not say what rules will protect the records. The Attorney General will write those rules later.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Apr 16, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Apr 16, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on the Judiciary and Senate Committee on the Judiciary · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary”
- Apr 22, 2026 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Apr 22, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by Voice Vote”
- May 12, 2026 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H3370-3371)”
- May 12, 2026 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Schmidt moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- certify — To officially say someone is qualified to do a job.
- FBI criminal history records — Files kept by the FBI about arrests and convictions.
- Attorney General — The top law officer in the U.S. government.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,873 characters) on Jul 2, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,522 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-22.
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