Republicans stalling on shortened sentences for drug offenders and putting felons back to work
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In a year of tight budgets and bitter partisanship, Congress appears ready to turn down a chance to save hundreds of millions of dollars through criminal justice reform legislation that has broad bipartisan support.
The reform effort, which aims to shorten mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders and ease the path of former felons back into the workforce, was expected to be one of the few major pieces of legislation to become law this year. But GOP aides in the House and Senate have been growing increasingly bearish over the past month.
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas), one of the foremost backers of the bill, threw more cold water on prospects for passage in a brief interview this week, saying he expected the House to move first — not the Senate, as long presumed. “All our eyes are on Chairman Goodlatte and the speaker,” Cornyn said of House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), and Speaker Paul Ryan. House GOP leadership aides gave no indication legislation would hit the House floor any time soon. An aide to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he had no scheduling information to provide on the bill, which has sharply divided his conference.
The effort has supporters from across the political spectrum, including Cornyn, Ryan, conservative firebrand Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and the conservative billionaire Koch brothers, as well as Democratic Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), the liberal Center for American Progress and President Barack Obama.
Many advocates tout the public safety benefits as well as the chance to provide some measure of redemption to people. But the fiscal factor — with taxpayers spending $7 billion annually on the federal Bureau of Prisons — has proven a valuable tool in stitching together a bipartisan coalition.
Supporters of the effort fired off news releases last month after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Senate sentencing reform package would save $722 million over a decade. The House is advancing a series of bills through Goodlatte’s committee, with one of them saving $769 million over a decade, according to the CBO.
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