Bob Goodlatte: Finding common ground on criminal justice reform

Finding common ground isn’t always the headline story from Washington. But there are a number of issues where both Republicans and Democrats can agree. One of these is the need for reforms to the criminal justice system.

At the start of my chairmanship of the House Judiciary Committee in 2013, I created a bipartisan Over-Criminalization Task Force to look at the criminal justice system and the laws on the books to determine how best we can improve the system. In June of this year, Ranking Member John Conyers and I announced a bipartisan criminal justice reform initiative. For the last several months, we have been working with a group of Members from both sides of the aisle to identify solutions to a number of issues related to the criminal justice system.

As part of this initiative, we have been pursuing responsible, common sense reforms to ensure our criminal justice system reflects core American values. While we want to be tough on crime, we also want to be smart in the way we go about it. We want to make sure our federal laws and regulations effectively and appropriately punish wrongdoers, protect individual freedom, safeguard civil liberties, work as efficiently and fairly as possible, do not impede state efforts, and do not waste taxpayer dollars.

Now, we have unveiled our first piece of legislation: the Sentencing Reform Act. This bill makes changes to the front-end of the criminal justice system. It reduces certain mandatory minimums for drug offenses, broadens the existing safety valve for low-level drug offenders, and provides judges with greater discretion in determining appropriate sentences while ensuring that serious violent felons do not get out early. It also contains sentencing enhancements for Fentanyl trafficking, a highly addictive and deadly drug that is becoming a growing epidemic in the Sixth District of Virginia and throughout the United States.

There is a growing consensus across the political spectrum that our criminal justice system is in need of reform. It’s not a liberal or conservative issue; it’s an American issue. Congress, specifically the House Judiciary Committee, has the responsibility to ensure that the system is working to provide appropriate and effective justice. I will continue working to improve our criminal justice system so that it works fairly and efficiently while keeping our communities safe.

Bob Goodlatte represents the Sixth District of Virginia in Congress.