muster up the votes he needs to pass the sentencing reform bill, it will likely die in the Senate before lawmakers hit the campaign trail in the fall. Yet Harris sees the November election as a plus. Senators like Kirk, who is finishing up his first term in the Senate and faces a formidable challenger in U.S. Representative Tammy Duckworth in the fall, could help move the bill. "Senators who are going to have tough re-elections, I think you'll see them voting for criminal justice reform," Harris says confidently.

Congress has been slow to enact similar federal-level changes, but many states have embraced the movement toward ending mandatory minimum sentencing and other tough-on-crime era policies.

Once notorious for its crowded prisons, Texas has reduced its prison population through reforms thatWritten by Patrick Howell O'Neill

The U.S. National Security Agency tracked Russian hackers working against French political targets and then alerted French authorities prior to the “massive and coordinated hack” against the campaign of President-elect Emmanuel Macron, the NSA’s chief said Tuesday.

Macron won convincingly even though the hack resulted in a massive email dump about a day before French voters headed to the polls, but upcoming crucial elections across Europe have raised alert levels for Western intelligence agencies tasked with fighting Russian interference.

Adm. Michael Rogers, who leads both the U.S. Cyber Command and the NSA, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. He was asked about the United States’ role in protecting elections inside and outside of U.S. borders.

“We had become aware of Russian activity,” Rogers said.