COLUMBIA--A bill to increase the penalties for criminal domestic violence was steamrolling through the House until it hit a roadblock of amendments Thursday.

Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Columbia, proposed eight modifications that would in part reduce the fines and the mandatory jail time attached to convictions.

The bill's supporters said the changes would defeat the purpose of the legislation.

"This is an effort of people who don't support it to water it down and kill it," said Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg.

House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, and Judiciary Chairman Jim Harrison, R-Columbia, introduced the legislation Tuesday after a similar bill was killed in committee last week.

The issue was propelled into the spotlight by the comments of Rep. John Graham Altman, R-Charleston, who questioned why victims of abuse return to their batterers.

Those statements made during an interview with a Columbia television reporter prompted Altman to apologize to fellow lawmakers Wednesday.The firestorm created by Altman's remarks impelled House leaders to promise the bill would pass. It was expected to move quickly until some lawmakers raised concerns that the bill would do little to help victims of domestic violence.

Rutherford, a Columbia attorney, talked with judges and prosecutors who said it would be difficult to prosecute cases under the bill's guidelines.

"I am not trying to water it down. I am not trying to obstruct the bill," he said. "I am trying to make it effective."

Victims' advocates worried that if the bill didn't pass this week, it would be dead until next year. Under the Legislature's rules, if the House passes it after May 1, it would take a two-thirds majority in the Senate to take up the bill.

But Laura Hudson, a victims' rights lobbyist, said she has been assured the Senate will get that majority and consider the bill before adjournment.

Earlier this week, Senate leader Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, set up a subcommittee that will look at a variety of domestic violence proposals.

Hudson questioned Rutherford's motives, saying as a lawyer he is working for his own gain.

"Is this because he's thinking from his wallet or because he's thumbing his nose at the Republican leadership?" she said. "Obviously, it's an effort to delay the bill."

Rutherford called her analysis "sick."

"When I disagree with other people, I don't question their motives," he said. "She doesn't understand the effects of this bill."