Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, today voted for, and the House passed, the Eliminating the Quantifiably Unjust Application of the Law (EQUAL) Act, a sentencing reform measure that ends the disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenses.
The vote on passage was 361 to 66.
Congressman Cohen made the following statement:
“I have advocated for ending the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine offenses for decades, and I am proud to vote in favor of the EQUAL Act. That powder-crack disparity falls hardest on African Americans and is unjustifiable and blatantly unfair. As I have said many times before, the war on drugs has been a failure, and the crack-powder disparity has been a glaring example of its inequity. I was pleased to work in the Judiciary Committee to advance this bill to the floor in July and look forward to seeing it signed into law.”
Original source can be found here.
