logo

Did Congress fail to pass major criminal justice reform during the Obama Administration?

Saturday, June 13, 2020
By Anna Lenaker
YES

In 2016, the last year of President Obama's term, the Senate rejected what was seen as a major criminal-justice reform measure. The effort foundered on resistance from Sens. Tom Cotton and Jeff Sessions, who in 2017 resigned to become the Trump Administration's first Attorney General.

Key parts of that bill, including reduced sentences for drug offenses, were among provisions in the First Step Act, passed in 2018. Sen. Cotton continued to oppose the measure, but the combination of other bipartisan support, influential lobbying efforts and solid Trump Administration support for the bill overcame that opposition.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.
FACT BRIEF BY
facebook
twitter
email
email