The National Football League released a statement Wednesday morning endorsing President Donald Trump’s First Step Act, a bill aimed at decreasing the size of America’s prison populations.
“The National Football League applauds the leadership of the President and bipartisan Members of Congress on criminal justice reform,” NFL VP of Communications Jocelyn Moore wrote in the statement. “We offer our full support for the revised First Step Act and urge passage this year.”
The bill — which was pushed by Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner — has earned widespread support, taking endorsements from the ACLU to the Koch brothers.
Hope for the bill’s passage has increased this week, after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) shifted his position on the prison reform package, saying, “At the request of the president and following improvements to the legislation that have been secured by several members, the Senate will take up the revised criminal justice bill this month.”
After originally pushing back against bringing the bill to a vote, the Kentucky senator responded to pressure from the president and other Republicans by saying First Step could be addressed on Capitol Hill later this week.
“Looks like it’s going to be passing, hopefully – famous last words,” Trump said yesterday in response to McConnell’s change of heart. “It’s really something we’re all very proud of. Tremendous support from Republicans and tremendous support from Democrats. Lot of years they’ve been waiting for it.”