After months of work, Congress has finally taken the “first step” on criminal justice reform. The bill recently signed into law by President Trump, known as the First Step Act, offers a smart path toward reducing crime, reforming our prison system, and saving taxpayer dollars. The First Step Act is a landmark piece of legislation that will implement evidence-based reforms in the notoriously inefficient federal justice system.

Without a doubt, President Trump’s recent signing of the First Step Act, which passed the Senate 87-12 and the House 358-36, marks a historic moment for conservatism in Washington. In response to more than a decade of evidence from successful criminal justice reforms in several states, the federal government has elected to enact similar meaningful reforms. Most importantly, Republicans are redefining in their own image the traditional, and rightful, meaning of “tough on crime.”

The Senate, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), has a prime chance to change its reputation and pass a landmark piece of conservative legislation. It arises on the issue of criminal justice reform that has strong bipartisanship across all ideological spectrums. Although most of the bipartisanship we see in the Senate coalesces around bad policy, such as wasteful spending, mass surveillance, and more, the bipartisanship in this instance is directed at very good policy.

In May, the House of Representatives passed the First Step Act, H.R. 5682, by a vote of 360 to 59. The bill would implement risk assessments and recidivism reduction programming in federal prisons, as well as incentivize certain nonviolent prisoners to reduce their risk of reoffending through earned time credits that can be “cashed in” for placement in pre-release custody.