We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.

… WHEN CONGRESS PAINTS AT ALL

Remember Harry S Truman’s “do-nothing” Congress? If you do, you’re old…like I am. But as Yogi Berra is reputed to have said, “It’s deja vu all over again.”

Hopes for any new COVID-19 stimulus package cratered last week, when the Republican-led Senate passed a “skinny” stimulus package that the Democrat-led House refused to consider.

Remember that the House version of the latest stimulus included several provisions easing compassionate release, CARES Act home confinement and elderly offender home detention. But with fewer than 12 work days left for the House and 13 for the Senate before the election, the chances any COVID-19 (or criminal justice) legislation will pass before the election have evaporated.

What happens after the election depends on what happens to control of the White House and Senate, and that won’t be decided until Nov. 3. Meanwhile, deadlock reigns supreme in Washington.

Wall Street Journal, Second Stimulus Check Not Showing Up Soon, if Ever (September 11, 2020)

Politico, 2020 Congressional Calendar (September 12, 2020)

HR 6800, HEROES Act

– Thomas L. Root