In a 16-9 vote, the House Judiciary Committee approved legislation to eliminate the disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentences on July 29. H.R. 3245, the Fairness in Cocaine Sentencing Act of 2009, would eliminate the current 100-to-1 sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentences. The bill would remove references to “cocaine base” from the U.S. Code, effectively treating all cocaine, including crack, the same for sentencing purposes.
After the vote, Julie Stewart, president of FAMM commented, “Justice won today. Today’s vote represents another step to restoring basic fairness to our sentencing laws and to fulfilling the Constitution’s promise of equal justice under the law. We urge the full House to act quickly on this measure.”
Under current law, five grams of crack cocaine and 500 grams of powder cocaine trigger the same five-year sentence. Fifty grams of crack cocaine and five kilograms of powder cocaine trigger the same 10-year sentence. If H.R. 3245 becomes law, crack and powder cocaine mandatory minimums will be equal: 500 grams will require five years and five kilos (or 5,000 grams) will require 10 years, no matter what form of cocaine is involved.
H.R. 3245 was introduced on July 16. The bill was voted out of a House subcommittee on July 22, and approved by the full House Judiciary Committee on July 28. It will now go to the full House of Representatives for a vote, sometime this fall. The bill is not yet scheduled for a vote.
The bill does not explicitly allow for retroactive application, meaning that if it is passed in its current form, it would not apply to people already serving mandatory minimums for crack cocaine convictions. A bill can change many times before becoming law. FAMM has urged and will continue to urge that the bill apply retroactively. If the final bill is not retroactive, FAMM will work with our champions in Congress to introduce legislation that would make the equalization retroactive.
A bill must pass through both the House and the Senate before it can go to the President for his consideration. The Senate has not yet introduced a bill. However, Senator Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) is likely to soon introduce a bill that would equalize crack and powder cocaine.
A Senate bill must go through the same process a House bill does (subcommittee, committee and floor vote). If the bill that passes the Senate is different than the bill that passes out of the House – and we anticipate there will be some differences – the two bills will go to a conference committee made up of members of the House and the Senate. The conference committee must reconcile any differences between the two bills.
Once the bill is reconciled, the bill goes back to the House and Senate to be voted on again. Assuming the bill passes in both chambers, then the bill goes to the President for his consideration.