This is a VERY bad idea: "A freshman congressman is trying to force changes that would virtually eliminate any discretion federal judges have left to show mercy on criminal defendants. Tom Feeney, a Florida Republican, quietly attached a rider to the Amber Alert legislation -- which had seemed destined for passage before Congress recesses for Easter next week -- that would erase many of the grounds for downward departures and require de novo review of sentencing decisions," Law.com reports here. I'll even go so far as to urge you to email your congressman or congresswoman to voice opposition to this rider, which you can do from this link.
Seven years ago, the Supreme Court decided that sentencing departures should be reviewed under the "abuse of discretion" standard, rather than the de novo standard, giving federal judges back at least a little bit of the discretion the Sentencing Commission took from them. Koon v. U.S., 518 U.S. 81 (1996). We should not stand by and let this nutjob Congressman from Florida take it away again.