Senior White House adviser and President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner said Monday night that Congress is very close to passing a sweeping criminal justice reform measure, and that he’s hoping for a “big bipartisan celebration” over passage before Christmas.
“The president’s built an amazing bipartisan coalition of Democrats and Republicans, and we’re very close right now,” Kushner said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “And hopefully this will get to the floor and we’ll be able to have a big bipartisan celebration before Christmas”
The legislation, known as the FIRST STEP Act, passed the House in May and has been co-sponsored by a bipartisan group of 31 Senators in the upper chamber. The measure includes provisions to reduce prison sentences, and Kushner argued that the legislation would save money in the long run.
“The recidivism rate that we have is way too high, and not doing anything about that is irresponsible,” Kushner said. “And we’re allowing people to go back to our communities who we can help, and there’s a lot of programs based in red states that we’ve really modeled this off of, so we know that this works.”
But it’s uncertain whether the Senate will vote this Congress on the legislation, which has divided Republicans. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said in the past he would not bring any criminal justice reform measure to a vote unless it was backed by 60 or more senators, but Trump urged McConnell last week to hold a vote on the “extremely popular” measure.
[New: Mitch McConnell says Senate will vote on criminal justice bill before Christmas]
“Hopefully Mitch McConnell will ask for a VOTE on Criminal Justice Reform,” Trump tweeted Friday. “It is extremely popular and has strong bipartisan support. It will also help a lot of people, save taxpayer dollars, and keep our communities safe. Go for it Mitch!”
In his appearance Monday night, though, Kushner steered clear of directly calling on McConnell to hold a vote.
