News Release
April 11, 2025
Press@ussc.gov

 

COMMISSION ISSUES AMENDMENTS TO
IMPROVE FEDERAL SENTENCING

WASHINGTON, D.C. ― Today, the bipartisan United States Sentencing Commission voted unanimously to publish amendments to the federal sentencing guidelines for the amendment cycle ending May 1, 2025. These amendments update a range of guidelines provisions, including those related to supervised release, drug trafficking, and firearms offenses. “The policies issued today are bipartisan, common-sense ideas that will protect public safety, reduce recidivism, and facilitate rehabilitation,” said Judge Carlton W. Reeves, Chair of the Commission. (Watch the public meeting.)

Today’s amendments will improve federal sentencing by:

  • encouraging courts to take an individualized approach to the imposition and management of supervised release;
  • addressing the harms of “fake pills” containing fentanyl while ensuring sentences better reflect a defendant’s function in drug trafficking;
  • providing appropriate penalties for firearms offenses that involve machinegun conversion devices;
  • simplifying the “three-step” approach that courts currently use when applying the guidelines; and
  • promoting consistent guideline application by resolving certain circuit conflicts.

The amendments issued by the Commission today will be posted HERE and will be delivered to Congress by May 1, 2025. If Congress does not act to disapprove the changes, they will go into effect on November 1, 2025.

The Commission includes U.S. District Judge Carlton W. Reeves (Chair), U.S. Circuit Judge Luis Felipe Restrepo (Vice Chair), Laura E. Mate (Vice Chair), Claire Murray (Vice Chair), and Candice C. Wong (Commissioner), with Scott A.C. Meisler (ex officio, U.S. Department of Justice) and Patricia K. Cushwa (ex officio, U.S. Parole Commission) serving as non-voting members.

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