First Step Act
Latest action · Nov 26, 2018 Read the second time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 674.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedNov 15, 2018
- Passed SenateNot reached
- Passed HouseNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
First Step Act
This bill amends various provisions of law and sets forth new provisions:
- to require the Department of Justice to establish and the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to implement a risk and needs assessment system;
- to modify the computation of good time credit;
- to allow federal correctional officers to securely store and carry concealed firearms on BOP premises outside the security perimeter of a prison;
- to limit the use of restraints on federal prisoners who are pregnant or in postpartum recovery;
- to reduce mandatory minimum prison terms for certain nonviolent repeat drug offenses;
- to broaden the existing safety valve to permit a sentence below the mandatory minimum for certain nonviolent, cooperative drug offenders with a limited criminal history;
- to make the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 retroactive;
- to require prisoners to be placed within 500 miles of their primary residence;
- to require low-risk prisoners to be placed on home confinement for the maximum amount of time permitted;
- to reauthorize through FY2022 and modify eligibility for an elderly offender early release pilot program;
- to require the BOP to help prisoners obtain identification documents prior to release, to incorporate de-escalation procedures into training programs, and to make tampons and sanitary napkins available free of charge;
- to authorize Federal Prison Industries to sell products to additional markets;
- to require probation and pretrial services officers to perform court-directed supervision of sex offenders conditionally released from civil commitment;
- to require the BOP to establish pilot programs on youth mentorship and service to abandoned, rescued, or vulnerable animals; and
- to limit juvenile solitary confinement.
Cosponsors 42
Members who signed on, in the order they did. Signatures ran from Nov 15, 2018 to Dec 18, 2018; 11 are original cosponsors, there from the day it was introduced.
| Seat | Cosponsor | Signed on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| D-MN | Amy Klobuchar | Original | Nov 15, 2018 |
| D-DE | Christopher A. Coons | Original | Nov 15, 2018 |
| D-NJ | Cory A. Booker | Original | Nov 15, 2018 |
| R-KS | Jerry Moran | Original | Nov 15, 2018 |
| R-IA | Joni Ernst | Original | Nov 15, 2018 |
| R-SC | Lindsey Graham | Original | Nov 15, 2018 |
| R-UT | Mike Lee | Original | Nov 15, 2018 |
| D-VT | Patrick J. Leahy | Original | Nov 15, 2018 |
| D-IL | Richard J. Durbin | Original | Nov 15, 2018 |
| D-RI | Sheldon Whitehouse | Original | Nov 15, 2018 |
| R-SC | Tim Scott | Original | Nov 15, 2018 |
| D-AL | Doug Jones | Nov 26, 2018 | |
| R-AZ | Jeff Flake | Nov 26, 2018 | |
| D-NY | Kirsten E. Gillibrand | Nov 26, 2018 | |
| R-TN | Lamar Alexander | Nov 26, 2018 | |
| R-KS | Pat Roberts | Nov 26, 2018 | |
| D-CT | Richard Blumenthal | Nov 26, 2018 | |
| R-ME | Susan M. Collins | Nov 26, 2018 | |
| D-IL | Tammy Duckworth | Nov 26, 2018 | |
| I-ME | Angus S. King Jr. | Nov 27, 2018 | |
| D-HI | Mazie K. Hirono | Nov 27, 2018 | |
| R-KY | Rand Paul | Nov 27, 2018 | |
| R-OH | Rob Portman | Nov 27, 2018 | |
| D-HI | Brian Schatz | Nov 28, 2018 | |
| R-IN | Todd Young | Nov 28, 2018 | |
| D-MD | Benjamin L. Cardin | Nov 29, 2018 | |
| R-LA | Bill Cassidy | Nov 29, 2018 | |
| R-MT | Steve Daines | Dec 5, 2018 | |
| D-MN | Tina Smith | Dec 5, 2018 | |
| D-CO | Michael F. Bennet | Dec 6, 2018 | |
| R-NC | Thom Tillis | Dec 6, 2018 | |
| D-MD | Chris Van Hollen | Dec 10, 2018 | |
| R-TX | Ted Cruz | Dec 10, 2018 | |
| D-RI | Jack Reed | Dec 12, 2018 | |
| R-TX | John Cornyn | Dec 12, 2018 | |
| R-GA | David Perdue | Dec 13, 2018 | |
| D-WI | Tammy Baldwin | Dec 13, 2018 | |
| D-FL | Bill Nelson | Dec 18, 2018 | |
| D-WA | Patty Murray | Dec 18, 2018 | |
| D-PA | Robert P. Casey Jr. | Dec 18, 2018 | |
| D-DE | Thomas R. Carper | Dec 18, 2018 | |
| D-NM | Tom Udall | Dec 18, 2018 |
Actions 3
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Nov 26, 2018Read the second time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 674.
- Nov 15, 2018Introduced in Senate
- Nov 15, 2018Introduced in the Senate. Read the first time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under Read the First Time.
In the Congressional Record 5
Days the Record’s own index lists this bill, newest first, with the pages and the members it names. Pages starting H are the House, S the Senate, E Extensions of Remarks.
| Where | In the Record | Members | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senate | Debate and remarks S7416–S7418, S7422 | John Cornyn R-TX, John Kennedy R-LA, Sheldon Whitehouse D-RI | Dec 11, 2018 |
| Senate | Debate and remarks S7314 | Benjamin L. Cardin D-MD | Dec 5, 2018 |
| House | Debate and remarks H9739 | Louie Gohmert R-TX | Nov 29, 2018 |
| Senate | Debate and remarks S7099 | Mitch McConnell R-KY | Nov 26, 2018 |
| Senate | Debate and remarks S7021, S7066 | Mitch McConnell R-KY, Richard J. Durbin D-IL | Nov 15, 2018 |
Research
What has been written about this bill: committee reports, cost estimates, the sponsor’s authority statement, printed hearings and the Congressional Research Service’s work.
Congressional Budget Office cost estimate
- Dec 14, 2018S. 3649, First Step Act of 2018Direct Spending and Revenue effects of an Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute for S. 3649, as posted on the website of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on December 13, 2018.
Related bills 7
Companion bills and other measures the record links to this one.
| Bill | Title | Relationship | Latest action |
|---|---|---|---|
| HR 613 | Lieutenant Osvaldo Albarati Correctional Officer Self-Protection Act of 2017 | Related bill | May 16, 2018 |
| S 756 | First Step Act of 2018 | Related bill | Dec 21, 2018 |
| S 1084 | Lieutenant Osvaldo Albarati Correctional Officer Self-Protection Act of 2017 | Related bill | May 10, 2017 |
| S 2471 | GRACE Act | Related bill | Feb 28, 2018 |
| S 2795 | FIRST STEP Act | Related bill | May 7, 2018 |
Titles 3
Every title it has carried, official and short, at each stage.
- Official Title as Introduced
- A bill to provide for programs to help reduce the risk that prisoners will recidivate upon release from prison, and for other purposes.
- Short Titles as Introduced
- First Step Act
- Short Titles as Introduced for portions of this bill
- Lieutenant Osvaldo Albarati Correctional Officer Self-Protection Act of 2018
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Crime and Law Enforcement.
- Accounting and auditing
- Advisory bodies
- Animal protection and human-animal relationships
- Congressional oversight
- Correctional facilities and imprisonment
- Crime and Law Enforcement
- Criminal justice information and records
- Criminal procedure and sentencing
- Department of Justice
- Detention of persons
- Disaster relief and insurance
- District of Columbia
- Drug therapy
- Drug trafficking and controlled substances
- Drug, alcohol, tobacco use
- Employment and training programs
- Executive agency funding and structure
- Family relationships
- Firearms and explosives
- Government employee pay, benefits, personnel management
- Government studies and investigations
- Higher education
- Judicial procedure and administration
- Juvenile crime and gang violence
- Law enforcement administration and funding
- Law enforcement officers
- Long-term, rehabilitative, and terminal care
- Mental health
- Public contracts and procurement
- Sex offenses
- Social work, volunteer service, charitable organizations
- Tax-exempt organizations
- Violent crime
- Vocational and technical education
- Women's health
Text 1
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Nov 26, 2018Placed on Calendar Senate
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov; cost estimates are the Congressional Budget Office's, and the hearings are the printed hearings GovInfo publishes, which can appear months after the hearing.
