U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) arrives for the Senate Republican weekly policy lunch at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., November 27, 2018. REUTERS/Leah Millis
December 11, 2018
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate will take up a revised criminal justice bill this month, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor on Tuesday.
McConnell had declined to bring up the bill until now, despite broad bipartisan support and backing by President Donald Trump. The proposed overhaul of America’s prison policies and criminal sentencing standards was reworked on Monday as supporters sought to pass it before the end of the year.
“At the request of the president, and following improvements to the legislation that have been secured by several members, the Senate will take up the recently revised criminal justice bill this month,” McConnell said.
“I intend to turn to the new text as early as the end of this week,” said McConnell.
The lame-duck session of Congress ends later this month. Backers of the bill fear delaying it until next year could give opponents more time to pick it apart.
Entitled the First Step Act, the bill would make it easier for deserving inmates to be released from prison into halfway houses or home confinement, create programs to reduce recidivism, and prevent first-time non-violent offenders from facing harsh mandatory minimum sentences.
The measure had stalled amid opposition from hard-right Republicans such as Senator Tom Cotton, as well as the National Sheriffs’ Association, which complained it could let “thousands of criminals out” of prison.
But changes that were made Monday included one that scales back discretion that judges have to sentence felons with criminal histories beneath mandatory minimums, one source said.
Senator John Cornyn, the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, told reporters Monday the new bill was being offered and he would support attaching it to a broader spending measure that is pending.
“I was talking with the National Sheriffs’ Association and giving them the good news that there’s been progress made in the direction they had requested. I’m not sure it’s going to be satisfactory to them. But I think it’s important we try to work with our law enforcement agencies,” Cornyn said.
(Reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
