A resolution expressing support for the designation of April 1, 2025, through April 30, 2025, as "Fair Chance Jobs Month".
This is a non-binding Senate resolution that simply expresses support for designating April 1–30, 2025 as “Fair Chance Jobs Month.” The resolution highlights the ongoing barriers faced by people with arrest or conviction records and cites data on incarceration, recidivism, and collateral consequences that hinder employment and reintegration. It calls for efforts to expand fair-chance hiring and related supports, including removing licensing and other barriers, boosting workforce development for returning citizens, and promoting collaboration among federal, state, and local agencies, employers, unions, and community organizations. While it does not create new laws or funding, it signals congressional backing for policies and programs that help formerly incarcerated individuals find stable, livable-wage jobs and reduce recidivism.
Key Points
- 1Designation: The Senate expresses support for designating April 1–30, 2025 as “Fair Chance Jobs Month.”
- 2Core rationale: Highlights the large number of people with records, high unemployment among the formerly incarcerated, significant collateral consequences, and disparities by race and other factors that impede reentry.
- 3Policy aims: Dismantle structural barriers to fair-chance hiring (licensing, employer liability, insurance restrictions) and expand workforce development for returning citizens and others affected by incarceration.
- 4Programs and activities: Promote pre-apprenticeship and registered apprenticeship programs; provide career coaching, resume-building, technology literacy, and other skill-development; educate employers on fair-chance hiring benefits.
- 5Collaboration and outreach: Match job providers with returning citizens; support labor unions and worker organizations; publicize job opportunities open to applicants with prior records; foster cross-government and community partnerships to advance fair-chance hiring.