First Step Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, on the CJR, criminal justice reform, I am really deeply heartfelt in thanking everyone who was involved in the criminal justice reform legislation.
I thank Senator Durbin, for whom this issue was a year's-long passion. When Senator Durbin gets his teeth into an issue, he does not let go until he achieves it, and he is great at getting it done. It was a real victory for him.
Senator Booker felt this issue so passionately from his residents in Newark and in seeing what had happened to friends of his and people he had known. He was a brilliant legislative tactician in knowing just how far to push and in getting the most he could from a Congress that was not from our side of the aisle.
Senator Whitehouse carried the mantle of making sure that while people are in prison, they are given adequate preparation so when they come out, they don't become recidivists again--free from drugs, with job training--and so they can become useful and productive members of society.
Senator Harris also added her passion and experience as attorney general to the great arguments for this bill.
I don't want to leave out colleagues on the other side of the aisle. Senator Grassley played a real role as a statesman. Senator Lee did tremendous work on this bill. Again, like with Senator Booker but from an opposite point of view, he knew when to hold and knew when to fold.
I thank all of them because this bill will make an extraordinary difference in countless lives by making our sentencing laws fairer and smarter, by giving judges more discretion so low-level, nonviolent drug offenses will not always be subject to arbitrary mandatory minimums; by giving prisoners with good behavior and who work hard to rehabilitate themselves better opportunities to prepare for their integration back into society as productive citizens who can contribute to their communities; and by ending the most abusive practices of our criminal justice system, like juvenile solitary confinement and the shackling of pregnant prisoners.
The bill got 87 votes. Those 87 votes are an entreaty to the new Congress to do more. It is called FIRST STEP for a lot of reasons, one being that many of us feel we have to go further and do more. Next year, hopefully, we can, and the resounding support from both sides of the aisle that this bill got should help us. It should importune us not to let this be the last proposal but the first in this area. The law will bring more justice to our justice system. I was proud to vote for it and so grateful for the work of my colleagues who pulled a diverse coalition together to get it across the line.
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