2026 Amendments to the U.S. Federal Sentencing Guidelines
AI-generated summary for informational purposes only. Not legal advice. See the original source for the authoritative text.
Updates the federal sentencing rules that judges use in criminal cases, including business-related offenses such as fraud, bribery, antitrust, tax, environmental, counterfeiting, theft, and intellectual property crimes. The changes are scheduled to take effect on November 1, 2026, unless Congress blocks them. The main practical effect is a simpler sentencing manual and higher dollar thresholds for many loss-based penalties. Companies, executives, compliance teams, and defense counsel should refresh sentencing exposure models, investigation playbooks, and settlement assumptions for federal matters, but this notice does not create new business compliance duties by itself.
AI-generated summary. May contain errors. Refer to official sources for legal decisions.
Key Changes
- Removes 26 rarely used offense-specific sentencing adjustments from the federal guidelines to simplify the manual.
- Raises loss and value thresholds used to increase sentence levels in fraud, theft, bribery, counterfeiting, intellectual property, vehicle theft, wildlife, antitrust, customs, and tax-related cases.
- Deletes or renumbers related commentary and cross-references so the remaining guideline provisions line up with the revised structure.
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Obligations
What this law requires
Apply the amended federal sentencing guidelines, policy statements, and commentary beginning November 1, 2026, unless Congress acts to block the amendments.
Do not apply the former 5-level increase under §2A5.1(b) for cases in which death resulted, because that specific offense characteristic has been removed.
Do not apply the former §2B1.5(b)(6) enhancement for brandishing or threatening use of a dangerous weapon, including the former minimum offense level of 14.
Do not apply the former §2B2.3(b)(3) enhancement for an offense involving invasion of a protected computer and resulting loss above the former dollar thresholds.
Do not apply the former §2B6.1(b)(3) rule that raised the offense level to at least 14 for an organized scheme to steal vehicles or vehicle parts, or to receive stolen vehicles or vehicle parts.