Should I give up hoping Prez Biden will soon make long needed nominations to US Sentencing Commission?

As we reach a full nine months into the Biden Administration, I must yet again express my frustration that there has not yet been any nominations to the US Sentencing Commission.  As I have noted in a number of prior posts (some linked below), due to a lack of Sentencing Commissioners, the USSC has not been fully functional for most of the last five years, and the USSC has not had complete set of commissioners in place now for the better part of a decade.  The USSC staff continues to produce lots of useful research and reports, but the FIRST STEP Act's passage in December 2018 makes it particularly problematic for the USSC to have been completely non-functional for now nearly three years since that law's enactment.

In this post months ago, I highlighted that all the openings on the USSC provide the Biden Administration with an opportunity to appoint transformative commissioners who could make the US Sentencing Commission a potent criminal justice reform leader.  Especially at a time when there is broad bipartisan interest in continued federal sentencing reforms, but Congress is consumed with a number of other concerns, there are an array of large and small improvements to the federal sentencing system that the USSC could and should be able to advance.  Effective appointments to the US Sentencing Commission could provide the foundation for advancing badly needed structural and institutional federal sentencing reforms for years and even decades to come.

During the 2020 presidential race, Biden’s campaign included a commitment that "Biden will take bold action to reduce our prison population."  To date, Prez Biden has not taken any tangible action to reduce prison populations.  Indeed, after a number of years of decline, official data show that the federal prison population is growing again.  Though a properly staffed US Sentencing Commission could not immediately ensure reductions in the federal prison population, the USSC can be an effective agent of decarceral reforms. As I have stressed before, shrewd and bold nominations to the US Sentencing Commission could and would serve as an effective way for Prez Biden to signal a real commitment to criminal justice reform while also reviving an agency with a long history of impactful work on the federal sentencing system.  

A few of many prior recent related posts:

• Any guesses for when we might again have a fully functioning US Sentencing Commission? 
• New commentary calling for Prez Biden to revive the US Sentencing Commission
• Might we be getting closer to (needed) new nominees for the "frozen" US Sentencing Commission? 
• Getting antsy for US Sentencing Commission appointments after another slate of impressive judicial nominees from Prez Biden
• Timely reminder of US Sentencing Commission's decarceral potential ... when it is functional 
• When might we expect appointments to a new — a truly new — US Sentencing Commission? 
• When might we expect advocacy groups to push Prez Biden make needed appointments to the US Sentencing Commission? 

Via RSSMix.com Mix ID 8247011 http://www.rssmix.com/