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Dec. 11, 2018 / 4:17 PM GMT
By Rebecca Shabad
WASHINGTON — In a surprising move Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced that he plans to bring a criminal justice reform bill to the Senate floor this month for a vote.
The Kentucky Republican made the announcement in remarks on the Senate floor, saying, “…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. I intend to turn to the new text as early as the end of this week.”
This comes a day after the junior GOP senator from Kentucky, Rand Paul, called on McConnell to hold a vote on the legislation and urged people to put public pressure on the majority leader.
“I will tell you that we need the help of one person. The one person who had the power to allow this vote — and I’m not saying he’s stopping it — but there is one person. He’s from Louisville, he’s fairly well known and he has the power to allow or disallow this vote,” Paul said at the Louisville Urban League, referring to McConnell. “There’s no reason we shouldn’t vote. So I would say if you’re in Louisville, call and say, ‘Senator McConnell, all we want is a vote’. It will pass overwhelmingly.”
For weeks, McConnell has been reluctant to bring up the bill even though he said before November’s midterm elections that he would hold a vote if at least 60 senators supported the measure.
In coordination with White House officials, lawmakers have been working on criminal justice reform for the first two years of President Donald Trump’s administration. A bill called “The First Step Act” has the best chance of passing; it currently has 31 co-sponsors in the Senate, both Democrats and Republicans. The House version of the bill passed with overwhelming support in May.
The legislation would implement the most sweeping set of reforms to the system since the 1990s by shortening some long prison sentences and improving conditions for people in prison, among other things.
Trump tweeted over the weekend that he hopes McConnell will call for a vote on the measure.
“It is extremely popular and has strong bipartisan support. It will also help a lot of people, save taxpayer dollars, and keep our communities safe. Go for it Mitch!” Trump said on Twitter.
McConnell also made clear in his remarks Tuesday that the Senate may have to stay in session between Christmas and New Year’s, “as a result of this additional legislative business.”
Congress has less than two weeks to address government funding and the president’s request for border wall money before next Friday’s Dec. 21 deadline to avoid a shutdown.
House Republicans announced Tuesday that they are canceling the first two days in session next week, which means they only have five legislative days left to pass an appropriations package.