 In December 2018, Gillibrand stated her hope that the No Cash Bail Act would be one of the first bills introduced in the 116th United States Congress, legislation that she said would require states to implement alternative pretrial systems along with a reduction in pretrial jail populations should they request receiving federal funding as part of an incentive program in addition to withholding grant funding from states that continue to utilize cash bail.Gillibrand furthered that the US should not imprison individuals that could not afford their bail and that the US "is much better than that and I believe we need to give people the opportunity to thrive, to help them when they're down, to make sure they actually have access to the rehabilitation they might need when things go wrong.