(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Senate will vote before year’s end on criminal-justice overhaul legislation in a major victory for President Donald Trump after holdout conservative senators bowed to White House pressure and joined the long-stalled bipartisan effort.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s decision Tuesday to hold a vote clears the way for the legislation backed by Trump and his senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, who’s spent much of his time over the last two months lobbying for a vote.
“Looks like it’s going to be passing hopefully -- famous last words,” Trump told reporters at the White House shortly after McConnell’s announcement. “I think it’s going to get a very good vote.”
The legislation, which would change criminal sentencing rules and provide help for some ex-convicts to readjust after release, got a recent public nudge by Trump. House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin has been supportive of a compromise measure. In a statement, Ryan encouraged the Senate to act quickly and said “the House stands ready to get it done.” Trump has told aides he will sign the legislation.
The attempt to revamp sentencing rules, a priority of Obama administration, had been held up in the Republican-controlled Congress even though it had the backing of billionaire Republican donors Charles and David Koch. But support from the Trump White House, along with some changes made to the original plan, gave it new life.
Vote Soon
“At the request of the president and following improvements to the legislation that has been secured by several members, the Senate will take up the recently revised criminal justice bill this month,” McConnell said on the Senate floor, adding that debate could begin as early as this week.
Trump worked to give the effort added momentum last week, appearing at a discussion about the legislation in Gulfport, Mississippi, with Governor Phil Bryant and other officials during a trip to the state.
“This legislation will help former inmates re-enter society as productive law-abiding citizens and it has tremendous support no matter where we go,” Trump said, calling on Congress to act before the end of the year. Vice President Mike Pence and Kushner also met last month with Senate Republicans at their weekly private lunch to try to jump-start the effort. Kushner has been notifying supporters that the measure has the votes to pass.
Bipartisan Appeal
The administration plans to promote the vote as one of the president’s biggest legislative victories and one that has bipartisan appeal, according to a White House official.
Some conservative GOP senators, including Tom Cotton of Arkansas and John Kennedy of Louisiana, have raised concerns about the plan, arguing it would lead to early release of thousands of repeat and serious offenders, and would go too easy on felons who dealt in opioid drugs that are fueling a U.S. health crisis. Yet some GOP senators who had been holding out, including Ted Cruz of Texas and David Perdue of Georgia, in recent days joined a growing group of senators in both parties who are supporting it.
That took pressure off McConnell, who is trying to complete this session of Congress before the Christmas holiday but still has a number of issues to address. They include spending bills to avert a partial government shutdown and Trump’s demand to spend $5 billion for a wall along the southern U.S. border.
Speedy Debate
McConnell of Kentucky on Tuesday urged senators to allow a speedy debate on the criminal justice bill, and he threatened to keep the Senate in session between Christmas and New Year’s Day if they don’t yield debate time to complete remaining year-end legislation and confirmations.
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are still putting final touches on a bipartisan compromise that would combine sentencing revisions with a plan passed by the House to reduce recidivism.
Representative Steny Hoyer, the second-ranking Democrat in the House, said he hoped the chamber can move quickly.
“It should have been done some time ago, but it’s never too late to do the right thing,” Hoyer said.
The legislation would reduce mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent offenders and give judges more discretion to set sentences for people charged with low-level drug crimes who cooperate with police. It would provide funding for programs aimed at curbing recidivism, let more past offenders petition to reduce sentence disparities between crack and powder cocaine offenses, and limit the use of solitary confinement for juveniles.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, and Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, have worked together to advance the legislation and have pushed hard for resolution this year.
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