Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida vowed to repeal the First Step Act, a Trump-era criminal justice law, if elected president. He called it “basically a jailbreak bill.”
The legislation earned quiet endorsement from the Biden administration and a solid group of Democratic votes, but exposed divisions over how to tackle the country’s most pressing drug crisis.
Thirty-one Democrats joined Republicans in voting to rescind a local law, in a demonstration of the political power of crime as an issue. The president, who had opposed the measure, now says he will sign it.
G.O.P. lawmakers took aim at the law reducing some sentences as part of their effort to make fears of violent crime a political liability for Democrats.