First Step Act vs. Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act: The 2018 Debate

Update (October 2026): This article was written in September 2018, before the debate ended. In December 2018, the Senate passed a revised First Step Act that added several sentencing changes from the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act. It became law on December 21, 2018 (Pub. L. 115-391). Among other things, it expanded the safety valve, reduced some drug mandatory minimums for repeat offenders, ended "stacking" of § 924(c) gun charges, and made the Fair Sentencing Act's crack cocaine changes retroactive.

In 2018, the House passed the First Step Act, a bill focused on federal prisons. In the Senate, a broader bill, the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act (SRCA), was still being debated. The question was whether to take the prison-only bill or hold out for sentencing reform too.

We covered the House version in a previous article. Here is how the debate looked at the time.

Why Some Senators Opposed the House Bill

The House passed the First Step Act with strong support from both parties. It looked like a big win for reform supporters, and even for the White House. But as they say, the devil is in the details. The bill still needed to pass the Senate, and that is where the trouble began.

Since 2015, Senators Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) had pushed the broader SRCA. It took Sen. Grassley some time to get behind criminal justice reform, but once he did, he became a committed supporter. He once said of reform, simply, "It's the right thing to do." To these senior senators, the House bill was a half-measure they could not support.

The Case Against the House Bill

The SRCA changed both prison programs and sentencing laws. That is why its name starts with Sentencing Reform.

Its supporters argued that helping people already in prison was good, but did nothing about mandatory minimums, the lowest sentences Congress requires for certain crimes. Those minimums send many people to prison in the first place and are largely responsible for mass incarceration in this country. The SRCA would have shortened several of them in key ways. The House version of the First Step Act did nothing to ease them.

Sen. Durbin, the SRCA's chief author, said: "You don't get many opportunities around here to do anything meaningful or substantive. . . . Let's not waste this one. Let's get this right."

In short, these senators said real reform was finally on the table. They wanted to do what the system needed, not settle for a half-measure that kicked the can down the road for another generation.

Opponents of the House bill included several prominent senators from both parties, more than 100 civil rights groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, and former Attorney General Eric Holder. Holder said: "Momentum for sentencing reform is being derailed by an effort that is misguided, ideological and outdated. . . . The narrow 'prison reform' bill won't deliver the transformative change we need."

The Case for the House Bill

Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act

Supporters of the House bill feared that adding sentencing changes would kill reform altogether. Some conservative lawmakers worried that giving any ground on mandatory minimums would make them look "soft on crime." The original article called that view outdated.

Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York), a lead sponsor, called the bill not the end, but "the end of the beginning on a journey undertaken to eradicate our mass incarceration epidemic in America." In short, supporters said something was better than nothing.

More than 100 former federal prosecutors, along with conservative and faith-based groups, backed the bill.

What Happened Next

The Senate, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), had the next move. At the time, the original article noted that Sen. McConnell had not been helpful on criminal justice reform in the past and had stopped the SRCA before. It was unclear whether he would allow negotiation.

SRCA supporters hoped to find room for compromise and add sentencing reform to the bill. Sen. McConnell could have tried to push the House bill through as it was. But Sen. Grassley, who opposed it, was close to Sen. McConnell, and losing his support might give McConnell pause.

In the end, reformers got part of what they wanted. The final First Step Act combined the House's prison reforms with several SRCA sentencing changes, including:

• A broader safety valve, which lets judges go below some drug mandatory minimums (18 U.S.C. § 3553(f)).
• Lower mandatory minimums for some repeat drug offenders, such as 25 years instead of life for two qualifying priors (21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A)).
• An end to stacking extra 25-year § 924(c) gun sentences for first-time offenders (18 U.S.C. § 924(c)).
• Retroactive Fair Sentencing Act relief for crack cocaine offenses committed before August 3, 2010 (Section 404(a)).

One point is easy to miss: not every change reaches old cases. The repeat-offender drug changes and the § 924(c) stacking fix apply only if a sentence had not yet been imposed when the law was enacted on December 21, 2018 (First Step Act §§ 401(c) and 403(b), Pub. L. 115-391). The crack cocaine relief in Section 404 is the main change that reaches back to people already sentenced. If you are trying to learn whether a loved one qualifies for anything, start with the judgment (the court's written sentencing order) and the docket number.

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