U.S. Sentencing Commission publishes proposed guideline amendments including inflation adjustments and new victim-harm enhancement

Ellen Dinsmore, senior research associate in the Office of Research and Data at the United States Sentencing Commission, presented data on Dec. 12, 2025 after the Commission voted to publish proposed amendments to the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, including inflationary adjustments to monetary tables and changes to the Primary Economic Crime Guideline, section 2B1.1.

The Commission's first proposed change would adjust every monetary table and value in the guidelines for inflation. "The proposed amendment uses a specific multiplier derived directly from the consumer price index, 1.36," Dinsmore said, and it would round amounts using rules extrapolated from section 5(a) of the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990 — the same methodology the Commission used in 2015.

Using Fiscal Year 2024 sentencing data, the Commission estimated how the inflationary adjustment would shift individuals across the 2B1.1 loss-table categories. For example, Dinsmore said raising the lowest threshold from $6,500 to $9,000 would leave 45 individuals' offense levels unchanged while 58 individuals would move from a 2-level increase to no increase. The presentation noted a 2-level decrease on the sentencing table is generally associated with roughly a 25% reduction in the guideline range.

The Commiss…