A group of unlikely political allies gathered at a press conference on Thursday to announce the rollout of criminal justice reform legislation in the House of Representatives.

Reps. James Sensenbrenner (R., Wis.) and Bobby Scott (D., Va.) joined representatives from Koch Industries, the American Conservative Union, the NAACP, the ACLU, and the Pew Charitable Trusts in announcing the introduction of the Safe, Accountable, Fair, and Effective Justice Act, or the SAFE Act.

The legislation reduces the use of mandatory minimum sentencing for drug offenders, among other provisions.

The bill "utilizes an evidence-based approach to reduce overcriminalization and overincarceration and reinvests the savings into community based prevention and early-intervention programs to improve public safety," said Scott, who, with Sensenbrenner, co-chaired a House task force on overcriminalization.

The website Crime Report, which covers criminal justice policy, noted the wide array of organizations that appeared at the press conference to announce the legislation’s introduction.

One notable aspect of yesterday's announcement was the presence of a wide range of organizations supporting the bill, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the conservative Koch Industries, the American Conservative Union Foundation, Families Against Mandatory Minimums, and the Police Foundation. Jake Horowitz of the Pew Charitable Trusts Public Safety Performance Project, which advocates for sentencing reform in states, presided at yesterday's session. Pew said it provided "technical assistance" in the bill's drafting, and Sensenbrenner was frank about saying that Congress is "learning from innovation in the states." Pat Nolan of the conservative foundation, a former California legislator and ex-white collar crime inmate himself who has made a career of campaigning for sentencing reform, declared that the current system is "dysfunctional" because it does not change prisoners' behavior and can cause more harm to those being sentenced than did their crimes.

Other groups supporting the measure include the NAACP and conservative anti-tax advocate Grover Norquist. High-profile congressional supporters include Reps. Mia Love (R., Utah), Elijah Cummings (D., Md.), and Raul Labrador (R., Idaho).