Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) moved on Thursday to set up votes to open up debate on the legislation. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo Congress GOP infighting continues as criminal justice bill advances

The Senate is moving forward on criminal justice reform. But Republicans are still fighting about it.

As Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) prepared on Thursday to set up next week‘s votes on the bill, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) sought to make last-minute changes that would reflect a compromise the bill's supporters had reached with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). Cruz had endorsed the bill because it was supposed to bar many violent criminals from earning early release, but the version that was presented on Wednesday did not include all of the exclusions Cruz had been seeking even though it did change some sentencing provisions that he sought to limit leniency toward longtime offenders.


Lee tried to get McConnell to change them, according to multiple people familiar with the matter, but McConnell wanted to give his divided caucus at least 24 hours to review the text that had been released Wednesday. The bill‘s chief critic, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), joined an intense discussion with McConnell, Lee and Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) on the Senate floor on Thursday afternoon, in which Lee argued that the changes should be made to increase the bill‘s conservative support.

But the Senate will start considering a version without all of Cruz's changes and without a provision sought by supporters that would allow faith-based groups to participate in anti-recidivism programs. To get them in the bill, the legislation must be amended on the Senate floor next week. Cruz‘s endorsement was critical to moving the bill forward, and he has repeatedly touted that the legislation would no longer allow the early release of violent criminals. His office did not comment for this article.

The kerfuffle comes as the Senate prepares to vote to advance the legislation on Monday, with the potential to complete the bill by midweek. McConnell on Thursday moved to set up votes to open up debate on the legislation, which will then be followed by a limited number of amendments.

McConnell’s parliamentary move fulfills a promise to President Donald Trump to consider the bill in the lame duck session after the GOP leader publicly and privately surmised that the Senate didn’t have enough time to complete it. After the Senate begins debating the bill, it will ultimately take 60 votes to pass it. And an amendment from Cotton will require just 50 votes in the narrowly divided Senate.

Cotton and Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) will offer an amendment to add new exclusions to people who qualify for reduced sentences, including some sex crime offenders. At a majority threshold, that amendment could be adopted to the bill unless the bill’s supporters band together to fend off any changes for the carefully negotiated legislation.

“It’s not necessarily an easy lift, but we will defeat it. I'm confident of that,” said one senator supporting the bill. “If passed, it would scuttle the carefully negotiated deal we have on this bill. So we’ll have to defeat it. And we will.”

The senator said that many Senate Democrats would probably defect from the legislation if the Cotton amendment passed.

Still, the popular legislation is on the fast track to completion if it can survive an uncertain amendment process. Most Senate Democrats support it, a significant bloc of Republicans are expected to back it, and President Donald Trump is expected to sign it if it passes the Senate and House next week ahead of the Dec. 21 partial government shutdown deadline.

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Kennedy had sought to slow down the bill on Thursday by declining to give it his consent to move forward. But McConnell instead used Senate procedure to outmaneuver the bill’s opponents.

“Sometimes you've got to go alone. I’m not saying it’s necessarily the case here, but sometimes the majority just means the fools are on the same side,” Kennedy told reporters of his stand against it. “There are many senators who are very nervous about this bill and don’t like it and are opposed to it. I think some are reluctant to say anything because of the White House.”

Kennedy’s Louisiana colleague, GOP Sen. Bill Cassidy, supports the bill and said Kennedy might eventually come around after the bill was amended to block some types of offenders from earning early release.

“John may decide that the amendments that have been added ... may have moved it to a place where he likes it. But I can’t speak for him,” Cassidy said, noting that Kennedy wrote an editorial praising similar reforms done in Texas.