BIPARTISAN, BICAMERAL COALITION INCLUDING SENATORS BOOKER (D-NJ) AND GRAHAM (R-SC), LEADER JEFFRIES (D-NY) AND REP. ARMSTRONG (R-ND) RENEW CONGRESSIONAL EFFORT TO FIX COCAINE SENTENCING DISPARITY

Recommitment to Reform Bill That Flew Through The House But Stalled In The Senate Filed During Black History Month

EQUAL Act Would Finally Eliminate Crack vs. Powder Cocaine Sentencing Disparity That Disproportionately Impacts Black Communities, is Widely Supported by Law Eenforcement & Civil Rights Leaders

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A critical piece of bipartisan legislation that narrowly missed a trip to the president’s desk in 2022 has new life this year. A bipartisan group of congressional leaders from both chambers renewed efforts to correct a historical wrong that has resulted in thousands of Black men serving disproportionately long sentences of incarceration. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Senate Judiciary Ranking Member Lindsey Graham (R-SC) filed the Eliminating a Quantifiably Unjust Application of the Law Act of 2021, or EQUAL Act, as original sponsors alongside five of their colleagues in the Senate today. Other Senate co-sponsors included Republican Senators Rand Paul (R-KY), Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), as well as Democrat Senators Christopher Coons (D-DE) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). The Senators were joined by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Congressmen Kelly Armstrong (R-ND), Don Bacon (R-NE) and Bobby Scott (D-VA) who filed the House version of the legislation the same day. 

The act would eliminate the federal sentencing disparity between drug offenses involving rock or crack cocaine and powder cocaine. Since it’s initial implementation in the 1980s, that disparity has resulted in Black defendants, who are more likely to be charged for rock or crack cocaine, being sentenced to terms of incarceration as much as 100 times those of their white counterparts, who are more likely to use powder cocaine, despite the two substances being essentially pharmacologically identical. 

Last year, the bill received unprecedented bipartisan support in the House where it passed by a margin of 361-66. Unfortunately, despite 11 Republican co-sponsors in the Senate, EQUAL failed to make the cut in the end-of-year omnibus spending bill and was not offered for a vote in the upper chamber.  

Senators Booker and Durbin previously co-sponsored the measure, one long sought by public safety and civil rights authorities. All of this year’s original senate co-sponsors later joined the effort as a co-sponsor last year and were joined by 28 other Senators from across the nation. Representatives Jeffries (D-NY),  Armstrong, Scott and Don Bacon sponsored the legislation together last session as well, and were later joined by more than fifty of their House colleagues on both sides of the aisle. 

Jenna Bottler, Executive Director of the Justice Action Network, the country’s largest organization advancing bipartisan criminal justice reform at the state and federal levels, issued the following statement in response to the news:

"We are grateful for Senator Booker and Senator Graham’s tenacity and leadership. If passed into law, the EQUAL Act would rectify one of the worst vestiges of the so-called ‘War on Drugs’ and fix an unjust drug sentencing disparity that has caused thousands of people, most of whom are Black men, to be unfairly imprisoned for decades. 

The EQUAL Act continues to be a unifying force for the nation: both parties support this legislation, along with law enforcement leaders, civil rights groups, and a super-majority of the general public. Senators from both parties should follow the leadership of Senators Booker and Graham and make EQUAL one of their top priorities this Congress.”

The EQUAL Act has support from groups across the political spectrum, including the National District Attorneys Association, Americans for Tax Reform, Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, Prison Fellowship, Due Process Institute, Americans for Prosperity, FAMM, Catholic Prison Ministries Coalition, Digital Liberty, Faith and Freedom Coalition, ALEC Action, R Street Institute, National Association for Public Defense, American Civil Liberties Union, Sentencing Project, Fair Trials, FreedomWorks, Center for American Progress, Drug Policy Alliance, Jesuit Conference, Black Public Defender Association, Dream Corps JUSTICE, Federal Public and Community Defenders, Innocence Project, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, National Legal Aid & Defender Association, Taxpayers Protection Alliance, and Tzedek Association.

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