It’s time for President Obama to finally #BanTheBox.

Monday, September 14, marks two months since President Obama spoke at NAACP’s annual convention and endorsed “banning the box,” a policy that — if implemented — would prohibit federal contractors and federal agencies from asking about the criminal history of a job applicant until an applicant receives a conditional offer of employment.

“Let’s follow the growing number of our states and cities and private companies who have decided to ‘Ban the Box’ on job applications,” Obama said, “so that former prisoners who have done their time and are now trying to get straight with society have a decent shot in a job interview.”

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That sounds simple enough, especially since Obama could make it happen with the stroke of a pen. He made that endorsement the day after he commuted the sentences of 46 drug offenders, and just two days before he became the first sitting president to visit a federal prison.

But two months after that promising week for criminal justice reform, Obama still hasn’t acted to implement any fair chance hiring policies to unlock employment opportunities for Americans locked out of the job market.

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Back in March, more than 200 organizations and individuals, including Van Jones and Danny Glover, sent Obama a letter urging him to take executive action on the issue. Two months later, 27 senators and more than 70 members of the House sent separate letters with the same ask. “This policy would eliminate unnecessary barriers to employment for all job seekers and would give individuals re-entering the workforce the opportunity to apply for work based on their current merits rather than past wrong-doings,” the senators wrote.

One year earlier, in May 2014, the president’s My Brother’s Keeper Task Force sent Obama a progress report with a very similar recommendation: “Our youth and communities suffer when hiring practices unnecessarily disqualify candidates based on past mistakes. We should implement reforms to promote successful reentry, including encouraging hiring practices, such as ‘Ban the Box,’ which give applicants a fair chance and allows employers the opportunity to judge individual job candidates on their merits as they reenter the workforce.”

Nearly 16 months later, Americans are still waiting.

In late July of this year, the Obama administration announced a pilot program to provide Pell grants to state and federal prisoners. That was an important step that will help people access the education they need to secure employment and support themselves and their families once released, but it didn’t address the obstacles the formerly incarcerated will face once they re-enter their communities. Banning the box would help.

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President Obama did improve the workplace policies of the federal government on Labor Day last week when he signed an executive order requiring federal contractors to provide employees with up to seven days of paid sick leave per year. That was another important announcement, but one that does not help job seekers with records who are shut out of employment.

Eighteen states, 100 cities and counties, and major employers — like Target, Starbucks, and Koch Industries — already have these policies in place, as Obama intimated in his NAACP speech. Now, two months after he publicly endorsed them, it’s time for Obama to take the next step and implement the policies, too.

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