As Congress reflects on its success in passing the First Step Act at the end of 2018, it must look toward ways to build on the existing momentum. The First Step Act was constructed to shift our justice system toward ensuring that we are incarcerating the right people for the right amount of time and that while people are incarcerated, our correctional system is using resources wisely to rehabilitate inmates. It makes steps toward reentry initiatives following incarceration by reauthorizing the Second Chance Act but leaves much still to be done in the space of breaking down barriers to reentry to allow rehabilitated inmates to be successful in society.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) made some news on Wednesday when she sent a letter to President Donald Trump urging a postponement of the State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress on January 29. Although she stopped short of disinviting him, Speaker Pelosi cited security concerns related to the government shutdown as the reason.

In his State of the Union address one week ago today, President Donald Trump touted the widespread successes of tax reform legislation as well as his impressive rollback of regulatory burdens. FreedomWorks applauds those successes, and encourages Congress to advance further successes of the president’s agenda, as presented in his speech.

In his first State of the Union speech, President Trump once again promised to lower the swelling costs of prescription drugs. The question is – will the administration do it without imposing price controls.

The House and Senate are in session this week.