[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 154 (Friday, September 29, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S14764-S14765]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        FEDERAL SENTENCING GUIDELINES AMENDMENTS DISAPPROVAL ACT

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                       KENNEDY AMENDMENT NO. 2879

  Mr. COATS (for Mr. Kennedy) proposed an amendment to the bill (S. 

[[Page S 14765]]
  1254) to disapprove of amendments to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines 
relating to lowering of crack sentences and sentences for money 
laundering and transactions in property derived from unlawful activity; 
as follows:

       At the end of the bill, insert the following new section:

     SEC.   . REDUCTION OF SENTENCING DISPARITY.

       (a) Recommendations.--
       (1) In general.--The United States Sentencing Commission 
     shall submit to Congress recommendations regarding changes to 
     the statutes and Sentencing Guidelines governing sentences 
     for unlawful manufacturing, importing, exporting, and 
     trafficking of cocaine, and like offenses, including unlawful 
     possession, possession with intent to commit any of the 
     forgoing offenses, and attempt and conspiracy to commit any 
     of the forgoing offenses. The recommendations shall reflect 
     the following considerations:
       (A) the sentence imposed for trafficking in a quantity of 
     crack cocaine should generally exceed the sentence imposed 
     for trafficking in a like quantity of powder cocaine;
       (B) high-level wholesale cocaine traffickers, organizers, 
     and leaders, of criminal activities should generally receive 
     longer sentences than low-level retail cocaine traffickers 
     and those who played a minor or minimal role in such criminal 
     activity;
       (C) if the Government establishes that a defendant who 
     traffics in powder cocaine has knowledge that such cocaine 
     will be converted into crack cocaine prior to its 
     distribution to individual users, the defendant should be 
     treated at sentencing as though the defendant had trafficked 
     in crack cocaine; and
       (D) An enhanced sentence should generally be imposed on a 
     defendant who, in the course of an offense described in this 
     subsection
       (i) murders or causes serious bodily injury to an 
     individual;
       (ii) uses a dangerous weapon;
       (iii) uses or possess a firearm;
       (iv) involves a juvenile or a woman who the defendant knows 
     or should know to be pregnant;
       (v) engages in a continuing criminal enterprise or commits 
     other criminal offenses in order to facilitate his drug 
     trafficking activities;
       (vi) knows, or should know, that he is involving an 
     unusually vulnerable person;
       (vii) restrains a victim;
       (viii) traffics in cocaine within 500 feet of a school;
       (ix) obstructs justice;
       (x) has a significant prior criminal record; or
       (xi) is an organizer or leader of drug trafficking 
     activities involving five or more persons.
       (2) Ratio.--The recommendations described in the preceding 
     subsection shall propose revision of the drug quantity ratio 
     of crack cocaine to powder cocaine under the relevant 
     statutes and guidelines in a manner consistent with the 
     ratios set for other drugs and consistent with the objectives 
     set forth in 28 U.S.C. 3553(a).
       (b) Study.--No later than May 1, 1996, the Department of 
     Justice shall submit to the Judiciary Committees of the 
     Senate and House of Representatives a report on the charging 
     and plea practices of federal prosecutors with respect to the 
     offense of money laundering. Such study shall include an 
     account of the steps taken or to be taken by the Justice 
     Department to ensure consistency and appropriateness in the 
     use of the money laundering statute. The Sentencing 
     Commission shall submit to the Judiciary Committees comments 
     on the study prepared by the Department of Justice.

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