The Formerly Incarcerated Reenter Society Transformed Safely Transitioning Every Person Act or First Step Act reforms the federal prison system of the United States of America, and seeks to reduce recidivism.

Legislative history

Introduced in the Senate as S. 756 by Dan Sullivan (R–AK) on March 29, 2017 Committee consideration by Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Passed the Senate on August 3, 2017 (Unanimous consent) Passed the House of Representatives onJuly 25, 2018 (Voice Vote) with amendment Senate agreed to House of Representativesamendment on December 18, 2018 (Yeas: 87; Nays: 12) with further amendment House of Representatives agreed to Senateamendment on December 20, 2018 (Yeas: 358; Nays: 36) Signed into law by President Donald Trumpon December 21, 2018

The legislation increases the number of good conduct time credits that prisoners receive from 47 days per year to 54 days. Due to a legislative drafting error, this change is not being applied retroactively.^[4]

Donald Trump designated April 2019 as First Step Act Month at a 1 April 2019 ceremony.^[5]

Support and opposition

Supporters of the legislation include President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, the White House's senior adviser Jared Kushner, and Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah). Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Dick Durbin (D-Il.), and Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), supported the Senate legislation after sentencing reform provisions were added.^[6] Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) urged fellow Republicans to pass legislation during the lame duck session of the 115th United States Congress, by tweet, "GOP colleagues: NOW is time to pass crim [sic] justice reform unless your argument is that you prefer to work w Speaker Nancy Pelosi to pass a bill?"^[7] Kanye West and Kim Kardashianplayed a major role with Van Jones to lobby Donald Trump, who was initially hesitant, to support the bill, thus ensuring it passed in the Senate.^[8]

Opponents of the bill included Senators Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), and Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), among others. Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fl.), who opposed the sentencing reform part of the Senate bill,^[9]had raised concerns about how the bill classifies offenders, and said he is "not sure there is anything" that could win him over.^[10]Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) opposed bringing the legislation to a floor vote, citing the short calendar for the lame duck session, during which the Senate also needed to pass a spending bill to avoid the shutdown of 2018–19, among other legislation. He eventually reversed his stance and said that the Act would be brought to a vote.^[11]