[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 200 (Wednesday, December 19, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7838-S7841]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FIRST STEP ACT
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, today is a good day for representative
government, it is a good day for the taxpayers, and it is a good day
for safe streets and strong families. It is also a good day to
emphasize that many times Congress acts in a bipartisan way, and
probably not enough so we get credit for it. But last night, one of
these bipartisan pieces of legislation passed by a vote of 87 to 12.
That happened when the Senate adopted the FIRST STEP Act.
Today, the House is expected to send it to the President, who is
waiting with a pen in hand to enact once-in-a-generation criminal
justice reform. I am confident that the President is ready to do that
because I attended the news conference about 5 weeks ago when he
endorsed this legislation.
The FIRST STEP Act will help keep our streets safe, and it offers a
fresh start to those who put in the work when they were in prison to
get right with the law while paying their debt to society. It also
addresses unfairness in prison sentencing and revises policies that
have led to overcrowded prisons and, of course, ballooning taxpayer
expenses.
Several decades ago, Congress passed well-intentioned laws imposing
harsh mandatory sentences to stop the flow of drugs into our
communities, and it happened that I voted for those laws, but they have
also had some unintended consequences. Our prison population has
exploded, and the taxpayers' burden to house inmates has followed suit.
Today, taxpayers pay more than $7 billion a year on our Federal prison
population; however, despite that high cost, nearly half the inmates
released today are rearrested.
As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee for the last 38 years,
I consider myself--then and now--a law-and-order Republican. I am also
a taxpayer watchdog, and I believe in the redemptive power of
rehabilitation. So in 2015, I began to take a closer look at our prison
and sentencing laws. We needed to make the system work better for the
taxpayers, help law enforcement fight crime, and put a stopper in the
revolving prison door. I was led to that effort by the efforts of
Senator Lee and Senator Durbin, who had been working on similar
legislation for probably 3 to 4 years before my entry into this debate.
Several States across the country have developed these education,
treatment, and training programs. The result has been a significant
decline in recidivism. This means fewer crimes, fewer victims, and
fewer tax dollars spent housing inmates.
The FIRST STEP Act is carefully crafted to provide opportunities at
redemption for low-risk inmates, while ensuring that dangerous and
career criminals stay behind bars. It does this through a multilayer
system that filters out dangerous criminals and those likely to commit
new crimes.
The bill rewards those who take personal responsibility for their
mistakes and want to put in the time and will put in the time and
effort to turn their lives around.
It improves fairness in sentencing while preserving important law
enforcement tools.
It reduces some mandatory minimum sentences, but it also expands
their application to include violent felons.
It grants judges additional discretion to sentence low-level,
nonviolent offenders to less lengthy sentences as long as they fully
cooperate with law enforcement. Finally, it eliminates the disparity in
sentences for crack and powder cocaine offenses, which
disproportionately impacts communities of color.
Passing these reforms has been a team effort years in the making. It
couldn't have been done without the stalwart commitment by a somewhat
unlikely cadre of colleagues and advocates. We have had to compromise
to make this possible, to seek to understand the other's points of
view. In so doing, I think we made the bill better, and we accomplished
something of historic significance that will reduce crime, make our
system more just, and improve lives for generations to come.
Senators Durbin and Lee, as I previously stated, were instrumental in
this effort. Their interest in criminal justice reform dates back
beyond my getting involved in it in 2014. The exact date, I don't know,
but probably after Senators Lee and Durbin joined hands, probably soon
after Senator Lee came to the Senate. Their efforts inspired the Senate
to take a fresh look at our sentencing and prison laws.
Senator Graham, the incoming chairman of the Judiciary Committee,
Senator Cornyn, and Senator Whitehouse have also been with us since the
very beginning of this effort.
Senators Booker and Scott both share a passion for criminal justice
reform and have been vocal advocates, shining a light on the
shortcomings and societal impact of our current system.
Credit is also due to our House colleagues--Chairman Goodlatte,
Ranking Member Nadler, and Congressmen Collins and Jeffries, who
introduced the FIRST STEP Act in the House. And thanks to Speaker Ryan
for his support and pledge to bring this to the House floor so quickly.
At every step along the way, we have stuck together. We pitched this
bill to our colleagues and made changes based on their suggestions. We
also relied on input and expertise from a variety of groups from across
the political spectrum. In the end, this campaign earned the support of
several top law enforcement and tough-on-crime champions, such as
President Trump.
I think it is important to acknowledge the President's leadership on
this issue. When he got involved, he closed the deal, and we got this
done. He was helped in that effort by Jared Kushner. Early in President
Trump's administration, I happened to be in the Oval Office of the new
President. Jared Kushner was there, and we discussed taking up criminal
justice reform. I just asked him if he was interested in it. I wanted
to give him a phone call, so we had that phone call. He took the issue
and ran with it and helped find a way forward to accomplish something
previous administrations had tried and failed to do. Brooke Rollins and
Ja'Ron Smith at the White House were also instrumental in this effort,
working with Jared Kushner.
I would also like to thank the majority leader for staying true to
his word and bringing this bill to the floor when we demonstrated the
support for our effort that he demanded. In the end, I appreciated his
vote for this bill.
Thanks also is due to the Senate floor staff on both sides of the
aisle
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who helped us successfully navigate the bill to final passage.
I want to thank my Senate staff, who helped make this possible.
Bipartisan compromise is not for the faint of heart, and they have
stayed true to the commitment that Senator Durbin and I made to each
other to move forward step-by-step in complete agreement about the path
we should take and the path we had to take.
I would like to thank my Judiciary Committee staff director, Kolan
Davis. Kolan's steady hand and sound judgment improves everything he is
involved in. I value his counsel today, just as I have for the last 33
years.
By my side today is Aaron Cummings, my chief Constitution counsel and
crime counsel. He led the effort to negotiate this bipartisan deal in
my office and worked hard to see it through and to organize a vast
coalition of support. Of course, he also worked closely with other
committee staff members in that direction.
I would also like to thank Brian Simonsen for his diligent work on
this important bill.
Our Department of Justice detailees to the Judiciary Committee, Tom
Sullivan and Erin Creegan, provided very good technical advice.
My sincere thanks also goes to my talented communications team--
Taylor Foy, Judiciary Committee communications director, and George
Hartmann, Judiciary Committee press secretary, as well as Michael
Zona--for their dedication to this effort and their successful campaign
to educate and persuade so many to support this bill.
I am also thankful for my personal office staff, led by my chief of
staff, Jill Kozeny. Jill has been my trusted adviser for over 30 years.
She is leaving my staff, and I will be sad to see her go. She has been
an exceptional leader, solving problems that I didn't even know I had,
and she has done it all with matchless grace and what I like to call
Iowa nice.
I am also grateful to Jennifer Heins, who keeps me on track and
provides sound strategic advice.
Their contributions and those of every staffer who was part of this
effort have been invaluable.
I would like to thank Senator Durbin's staff, particularly his chief
counsel, Joe Zogby, and his counsel, Rachel Rossi. Working with my
staff, the White House, and others, they must have helped us close the
deal more than a dozen times. That is an example--maybe it is 10 times;
maybe it is 20 times. But closing deals many times is what it takes to
get to the bipartisanship that it took to get 87 votes on this bill. Of
course, in the end, their dedication--and that includes creativity and
every effort they could put forth--got the job done.
I want to give particular thanks to the law enforcement groups whose
support and input were key to the bill's success, including the
Fraternal Order of Police, the International Association of Chiefs of
Police, the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives,
the National District Attorneys Association, the Association of
Prosecuting Attorneys, and Law Enforcement Leaders.
I am getting to the end. I would also like to thank the groups that
made this effort possible. A diverse group and broad coalition of other
groups, from the ACLU to the American Conservative Union, supported
this bill. I can't list all the groups that offered their key support,
but they include FreedomWorks, Justice Action Network, Americans for
Tax Reform, Heritage Action, the Due Process Institute, Faith & Freedom
Coalition, R Street, Right on Crime, Texas Public Policy Foundation,
Prison Fellowship, and members of the Interfaith Criminal Justice
Coalition.
To treat everybody fairly, I ask unanimous consent that a complete
list of support be printed for the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
The Heritage Foundation; American Enterprise Institute;
Right on Crime; Americans for Tax Reform; FreedomWorks;
Independent Women's Forum; ALEC Action; Bridges to Life;
Calvert Institute for Policy Research; American Conservative
Union; Commonwealth Foundation; Faith and Freedom Coalition;
The James Madison Institute; Florida Tax Watch; Pelican
Institute; R Street Institute; Rio Grande Foundation; Texas
Public Policy Foundation; Fraternal Order of Police.
International Association of Chiefs of Police;
International Union of Police Association AFL-CIO; National
District Attorney's Association; Sixty Sheriff's Letter--Led
by Sheriff Hodgson of Bristol County, Maryland; National
Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives; Law
Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Crime & Incarceration; Jackson
County Sheriff's Department, Kansas; Rockingham County
Sheriff's Department, North Carolina; Families Against
Mandatory Minimums; Center for American Progress; Prison
Fellowship; #cut50; Latinos for Tennessee; Bernice King; 2000
Faith Leaders Letter of Support; Brother Franklin Graham.
Pastor Paula White; Pastor Jentezen Franklin; Pastor Jack
Graham; Alveda King; Pastor Darrell Scott; Rabbinical
Alliance of America; Skvere Community; Young Israel; Satmar
Community; Catholic Charities USA; The Kairos Group; Move the
Earth Ministries; Aleph Institute; Christian Community
Development Association; City Gate Network.
Council for Christian Colleges & Universities; National
Association of Evangelicals; National Hispanic Christian
Leadership Conference; Kingdom Mission Society; National
Latino Evangelical Coalition; Louisiana Family Forum;
Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission;
American Bus Association; American Clergy Network; American
Correctional Association; American Jail Association;
Association of Prosecuting Attorneys; Association of State
Corrections Administrators; Baltimore Ravens; Bread for the
World.
CAN-DO Foundation; Circle of Protection; Citygate Network;
Douglass Leadership Institute; Due Process Institute;
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Flikshop; Friends
Committee on National Legislation; Institute for Prison
Ministries; International Community of Corrections
Associations; Fairness, Dignity & Respect for Crime Victims &
Survivors; Crime Survivors for Safety and Justice; Just
Detention; Justice and Serious Mental Illness; Lifted from
the Rut.
National Conference of State Legislatures; National
Criminal Justice Association; National Governors Association;
National Incarceration Association; Progressive National
Baptist Convention; Returning Home; Samuel DeWitt Proctor
Conference; Society of St. Vincent de Paul; Sojourners; The
Episcopal Church; The Sentencing Project; U.S. Conference of
Mayors; U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; Valor Village
Foundation; Wesleyan Church.
US Chamber of Commerce; Business Roundtable; National
Retail Federation; The Associated General Contractors of
America; Associated Builders & Contractors; National
Association of Homebuilders; National Electrical Contractors
Association; Job Creators Network; National Restaurant
Association; Asian American Hotel Owners Association; Small
Business & Entrepreneurship Council; National Association of
Broadcasters; Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors
Association; National Grocers Association; International
Franchise Association; U.S. Black Chamber of Commerce.
Justice Action Network; (Alliance of Automobile
Manufacturers; National Association of Home Builders; U.S.
Chamber of Commerce; Arizona Free Enterprise Club; Connie
Wilhelm, CEO, Home Builders Association of Central Arizona;
Don Finkel, CEO, American OEM; Gene Barr, President & CEO,
Pennsylvania Chamber of Business & Industry; Guy Ciarrocchi,
President, Chester County Chamber; Kalamazoo Probation
Enhancement Program; Kansas Chamber of Commerce; Kevin
Schmidt, Executive Director, Ohio Cast Metals Association;
Lincoln Trail Home Builders; Louisiana Association of
Business and Industry; Matt Smith, President, Greater
Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce; Michigan Association for
Community Corrections Advancement; Saginaw County Chamber of
Commerce); National Football League; FOX; US Travel
Association; Realtors; The GEO Group, Inc.; National
Association of Manufacturers.
Mr. GRASSLEY. This was a combined effort, one on a scale not often
seen in Washington these days. I am grateful for everyone's work to
bring about these historic reforms. Together, we have taken steps to
reduce crime and recidivism, to strengthen faith and fairness in the
criminal justice system, and to signal to those willing to make amends
that redemption is within their reach. Together, we have taken an
important step to live up to the commitment we make every time we
pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States: to provide liberty
and justice for all.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Hyde-Smith). The assistant Democratic
leader.
Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, let me first say how grateful I am to
Senator Grassley for his friendship, No. 1., and his leadership, No. 2.
It has been one of the highlights of my Senate experience to work with
him on this bill. We trust one another. It reached a point where he
said: I am not going to make a big decision unless you tell me it is
all right, and I hope you will feel the same way when it comes to
decisions affecting me. And I did, and it
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paid off because we came to trust one another. We worked together to
reach a point last night where we passed a bill which I think will be
judged in a positive way in the history of our country.
I might add that Senator Mike Lee of Utah was an early ally in this
effort, but our team wasn't putting together a winning record until
Chuck Grassley joined the squad--not only joined it but led it. Then we
brought in Cory Booker, who was a valuable spokesperson and ally when
it came to bringing groups together on the left and in the center to
achieve this bill. Last night, the four of us celebrated a victory. But
the victory was not ours; it was a victory for the American people and
for those who want to make sure we have a just system when it comes to
criminal law and prison terms that follow from those convicted.
For those three Senators who joined me, I can't thank you enough. I
really hope we can get the band back together sometime for another
issue. Maybe it is the second step. Whatever it is, I would like to
continue to work with this group and expand it to those who would like
to be part of our effort.
I think we showed something last night that most American people
wouldn't believe: that a bipartisan group of Senators from across the
political spectrum could tackle one of the toughest political issues of
our day; assemble an array of support--left, right, and center--from
Members of the Senate, as well as organizations devoted to law
enforcement and civil rights; and at the end of it, have something we
all felt was a fair product to send over to the House, which I hope
will act on this very quickly.
I will say a few words about how we reached that point in a moment,
but I want to take time now, as Senator Grassley has, to honor the
staff of my office, who have done such an exceptional job to bring us
to this moment.
Joe Zogby. Joe has been my chief counsel for several years now. For 6
years, he has worked tirelessly to get this legislation through the
Senate--and I mean tirelessly. He fielded calls to negotiate the
provisions of this bill at the same time he was coaching his sons in
baseball and trying to take care of his family responsibility. Joe was
available every hour of the day and night.
A special word of thanks to his wife, Lamece Baligh, and their sons,
James, Elias, and Luke. I want to apologize to them for taking their
dad away so many times for lengthy conversations, but we would never
have reached success last night without that input from their father
and husband.
This win would not have happened without the dogged determination of
Joe Zogby. He is a rabid Phillies fan, so he is always looking forward
to the next season and the next victory. Last night, finally, we won
the World Series and passed this bill on the floor of the Senate.
No matter what assignment I give to Joe Zogby, whether it is the most
technical, difficult, and challenging immigration issues or coming up
with a new system of criminal justice or improvements to our system
criminal justice, he always rises to the occasion. I am truly blessed
to have him as my chief counsel. I may get the headlines, but, believe
me, Joe Zogby deserves the credit.
By his side was Rachel Rossi. Rachel is a detailee to our office. She
comes from the public defender's office. She told me this morning that
they had warned her ahead of time this was probably going to be a
pretty lackluster and boring experience, and nothing serious was going
to be considered or passed during the time she was a detailee. Well,
quite the opposite was true. She was here to be an integral part of the
construction of this legislation and its passage. She is leaving as
detailee at the end of the year, and I am going to miss her. While she
will be missed, she is leaving our office on the highest possible note.
Rachel, I wish you the best. You were an important part of the
legislation that passed last night.
Stephanie Trifone is our office counsel. She is involved in every
issue that goes through the Senate Judiciary Committee. She played a
supporting role to ensure that the bill was properly written and
fielded countless calls and emails to keep our Senate staff and other
staff well informed. She has been a steady hand, and we needed her
every step of the way.
The rest of my team has its own assignments. Some of them worked
tangentially on this bill, but I really couldn't function without Dan
Swanson. He takes another agenda in the Senate Judiciary Committee,
primarily on the civil side, and there is none better. There are times
when people who were so-called experts would visit my office and say:
Where does this Swanson learn all of these issues in such detail?
Well, he is a pretty bright guy, and I am lucky to have him. His day
in the hot seat will soon come when we face another issue.
Debu Gandhi is an associate counsel. He is relatively new compared to
the others, but I like his style and his determination. I have never
asked anything of him that he hasn't produced the very best quality
project in a timely way.
Manpreet Kaur Teji is the legislative correspondent who has to field
all of the mail when I get up and give speeches that either make people
happy or angry. I thank her for her commitment to our office.
I want to say a word about my floor staff. Reema Dodin has been with
me since she was an intern in my office in Chicago. She went on to
graduate law school and came to join my staff and eventually became my
floor director. I didn't realize how much she was studying Senate
procedure, but she has really become a valuable asset, not just to my
office but to the Senate when we consider the options under the Senate
rules.
Having been parliamentarian in the Illinois State Senate for 10 or 12
years, I can tell you that those who work in the parliamentarian's
office, as well as those in support staff who are interested in Senate
procedure, are absolutely essential to the successful consideration of
important bills. Reema is in a unique position of helping to maneuver
and whip the bill on both the Democratic and Republican sides of the
aisle. She certainly did her job last night with 87 votes in favor of
our legislation.
MJ Kenny is by her side. He is the deputy floor director. He was
always in the cloakroom and always on the floor to ensure the FIRST
STEP Act had a fair shot of consideration and passage. MJ and Reema are
an incredible floor team. I am lucky to have them, and I thank them
both.
Corey Tellez is my legislative director. She ensured that all of the
staff worked together to finalize the bill. She kept our office and
other offices well informed every step of the way.
Emily Hampsten, my communications director, has been sending out
messages from my office on a bipartisan basis from the beginning. She
is always there with a smile and does professional work, and I thank
her so much for her work.
Claire Reuschel is my director of scheduling. She controls my life
more than anyone other than my wife. She sends me places when she
thinks it is right, and she usually has good judgment in those
decisions. She has navigated thousands of meetings and phone calls on
this legislation and so many other things. To say that she is an
important part of this process is a gross understatement.
Finally, Pat Souders is my chief of staff. He has been with me from
the beginning. He started off in the House and now has assembled, I
think, the best team on Capitol Hill. I thank him for not only finding
these talented people but making sure that they get along with one
another and that in their cooperation we can serve the people of
Illinois first and the Nation in the most effective way. I couldn't do
it without Pat Souders.
Let me say that this moment in history arrived because we had an idea
that was due; it is an idea whose time was due. It was due for a number
of reasons.
Thirty years ago, in the war on drugs, we were so frightened by crack
cocaine that as a House Member, I ended up casting what I considered
one of the worst votes in my career. I voted for the 100-to-1 crack to
powder disparity in sentencing. It meant what it said: You would get
100 times the penalty for the same amount of crack cocaine as you would
have in powder cocaine--the same narcotic, different form, dramatically
different results.
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We tried this in an effort to scare America straight, to let them
know we were serious. We would get tough and use all of the political
muscle we could find to stop the spread of crack cocaine. It was cheap.
It was easily produced. It was deadly, especially to the fetus being
carried by the addicted mother, and it scared us. I voted for that bill
and have regretted it ever since.
I know what happened; it didn't work. You couldn't scare people
straight. We ended up with more people addicted. The price of drugs on
the street went down, and we started filling our prisons, primarily
with African-American and Latinos inmates who were convicted under
these crimes. We knew in our heart of hearts that like so many other
laws, it was unfair. The majority--majority--of users of narcotics and
dealers of narcotics are White. Seventy-five percent of those who are
convicted and sent to prison for crimes related to drug dealing and use
are African American and Latino.
This disparity on its face tells us that our system was fundamentally
unfair and ineffective. I believe that is the reason we decided last
night to stop trying to muscle our way through the drug war and start
using our brains: What is it that will work, that will make certain
those who are truly guilty pay a price and those who can be
rehabilitated get that chance? It is as basic as that.
There is a second thing that has happened in America in recent years,
and it is heartbreaking when you see the results. We are facing the
worst drug epidemic in our history. For the first time in decades--
maybe in modern memory--we are being told that life expectancy in the
United States is going down. It is because of the opioid drug epidemic.
Thousands of people are dying because of overdoses of opioids, heroin,
and fentanyl.
The opioid epidemic has opened our eyes to something else. Narcotics
and their problems are not confined to the inner city. They are not
confined to people of color, and they are not confined to the poor.
This opioid epidemic has touched every corner of America in every
State. There is no suburb too wealthy, no town so small that it can
avoid this opioid epidemic. What it has done, sadly, is educate all of
us in what happens with addiction and what we need to do to fight it.
We now look at drug addiction not as a moral curse but, rather, as a
disease that needs to be treated. That doesn't mean we should give up
on prosecuting kingpins and doing everything we can to stop the flow of
narcotics, but we have come to realize that just sticking someone in
jail, if they lived long enough to reach that point in their lives, is
no guarantee they are going to come out of jail without that addiction.
We have to be thoughtful.
We also have to have rehabilitation that is available for people
across the board, whether they are rich or poor. That is something our
opioid legislation of several weeks ago moves toward solving.
The other thing we have come to understand is, the cost of the
current system is unsustainable. We cannot continue to fill our prisons
at great expense and not put money into things that count in terms of
protecting our communities. Arresting someone after the crime is, of
course, part of a just society, but it doesn't stop that original crime
from happening. We have to think about the crime prevention that makes
our homes and neighborhoods and towns and cities safe all across
America, and that was part of the calculation last night in this
embarkation on a new approach.
Finally, I want to say that virtually every major issue that passes
on the floor of the U.S. Senate--virtually every single one of them--
has someone backing it, pushing for it with a personal passion on the
issue. I feel--not personally but having visited so many prisons and
worked with so many people who have served time in those prisons--that
we need to have a more just system, a more effective system.
I want to give credit where it is due. Jared Kushner, President
Trump's son-in-law, spoke to me about his feelings on prison reform the
first time we ever met. I know it is personal to him, and I know it
means a lot to him and his family. Because he cared and because he
mobilized the conservative side of the political equation, we had an
amazing vote last night with 87 Members of the Senate supporting the
bill. All of the Democrats and then, on top of that, 39 of the
Republicans were also supportive of the bill. I might add, Senator
Lindsey Graham was absent. Now that he is back from Afghanistan, he
told us he would have made it 88 if he were here.
I will close by saying thank you again to Senator Grassley. Thanks to
Aaron Cummings. I thanked him personally last night. He worked so
closely with Joe Zogby and with Rachel Rossi during the course of this;
they really became a team. I think it was one of the reasons we closed
this deal and sent it to the House. It is, however, the first step. We
have to start thinking about the second step, and we need the help of
all of our colleagues.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, I thank Senator Durbin for his kind
remarks--more importantly, for 3 years of working together on this
legislation, and it is great that it paid off.
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