The looming criminal justice reform bill, which provides some leniency on nonviolent crimes and drug offenses, has such overwhelming support in the Senate, it might get as many as 80 votes, according to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.
"This is one of few issues that right and left are coming together on," Sen. Paul told "The Cats Roundtable" on 970 AM-N.Y. "You're finding that conservative Christians are supportive of it because they believe in second chances, they believe you can change your life for the better. . . . And you have progressives on the left who believe in the same thing. This has really brought a lot of people together.
"We'll probably vote on this as early as this week, with the final vote next week. And it may well get 80 members of the Senate voting for it, and that's amazing to get 80 out of 100 to support one bill."
Sen. Paul did acknowledge "a few hold outs on the Republican side," but told host John Catsimatidis "this is really a big achievement for President [Donald] Trump that he's gotten everybody together on this."
In addition to leniency on nonviolent crimes and drug offenses, the bill worked on by White House senior adviser Jared Kushner provides for inmates to be in prisons closer to home and might give nonviolent felons their right to vote back.
"We need to look at our drug problem . . . more as a healthcare problem and less as a let's-just-throw-them-in-jail and throw-away-the-key," Paul told Catsimatidis.
"I personally think for nonviolent crime a long prison sentence is a mistake."
As for the marijuana legalization push, Paul would like the issue to be put on the individual states to decide and the federal government sign on to allow that.
"I think we need to write the rules in Washington such that if a state has decided to legalize marijuana, that basically we're not going to go in there enforcing federal laws," Paul said. "We ought to try to let the states make the decisions on this."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.