In a surprising departure from his tough-on-crime image on the campaign trail, President Trump made waves two weeks ago by supporting a federal criminal justice reform bill. The president backed the First Step Act, backtracking on his opposition to a pre-midterm version of the bill. The legislation, long in the making and popular in both the Democratic and Republican caucuses, awaits only a vote in the Senate— one that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell appears to be intent on denying.
McConnell’s stonewalling has provoked fury among the bill’s supporters, who consider First Step an obvious reform. Iowa’s Chuck Grassley, who has authored a version of the bill, says it’s a “historic bipartisan bill,” that would amount to a “major bipartisan victory.” NBC News labeled it “the most sweeping set of changes to the federal criminal justice system since the 1990s.”
