Congress approved a sweeping bipartisan criminal justice reform bill on Thursday, handing President Trump a major legislative victory on an issue championed by his White House, Fox News informed.
The House approved the bill 358-36, sending it to Trump’s desk for his signature. The bill was approved earlier this week by the Senate, 87-12. The approval means a great win for Trump as well as his senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who advocated for the bill in the face of conservative resistance.
The bill would give federal judges more leeway when sentencing some drug offenders and boost prisoner rehabilitation efforts. It also would reduce life sentences for some drug offenders with three convictions, or “three strikes,” to 25 years. Another provision would allow about 2,600 federal prisoners sentenced for crack cocaine offenses before August 2010 the opportunity to petition for a reduced penalty.
The amendments were aimed at addressing concerns that the nation’s war on drugs has increased the prison population without helping people to rehabilitate in order to return to society.
After the bill was apporved, Trump tweeted his congratulations and described it as a “great bi-partisan achievement for everybody.”
“When both parties work together we can keep our Country safer. A wonderful thing for the U.S.A.!!” he tweeted.
After approved in the Senate, even hardened anti-Trump Democrats gave their support of the legislation including Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.
“But for the first time in a long time, with the passage of this bill into law, our country will make a meaningful break from the decades of failed policies that led to mass incarceration, which has cost taxpayers billions of dollars, drained our economy, compromised public safety, hurt our children and disproportionately harmed communities of color while devaluing the very idea of justice in America,” Booker said.
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