[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 162 (Thursday, October 19, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H10468-H10469]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               H.R. 2259

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oklahoma [Mr. Watts] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma. Mr. Speaker, as the son of a policeman and a 
fervent supporter of strong anticrime measures, I believe that we must 
attack the root problems that cause crime in America and that we must 
punish equal crimes with equal justice regardless of a person's color 
or economic class.
  Last night we considered a well-intentioned bill, H.R. 2259, that 
sought to address one part of the Nation's crime problem, but 
unfortunately, it missed the mark by a mile and sent the wrong message 
to the Nation's drug traffickers and drug abusers.
  The U.S. Sentencing Commission recently recommended that sentences 
for possessing and trafficking in crack cocaine should be the same as 
for possessing and trafficking in powder cocaine.
  The Commission is right to seek to equalize punishment. It is 
essentially unjust to have one standard of justice for the type of 
cocaine that is abused in the expensive homes of our finest suburbs and 
a different standard of justice for the type of cocaine that is abused 
in the abandoned crack houses of our worst ghettos.
  The Commission should have sought equalization by raising the 
sentences for powder cocaine. My view is that higher sentences, at 
equal levels, are needed in these cases.
  Unfortunately, procedural rules did not allow that vote, so I voted 
to recommit H.R. 2259 with that goal in mind. When that failed, I had 
no choice but to vote against final passage.
  We must punish the drug possessor, and work to rehabilitate him. But 
we must imprison the drug distributor and throw away the key. He haunts 
our Nation's schoolyards and makes his fortune off his poverty stricken 
and addicted buyer. He condemns his victims to a life of poverty and an 
early death. And his victims are disproportionately inner-city kids--
young black Americans.
  According to the Department of Health and Human Services [HHS], black 
Americans are being disproportionately affected by sentencing 
disparities. Only 4 percent of those sentenced for violating crack laws 
are white although 51 percent of crack users are white. In contrast, 88 
percent of those sentenced for crack violations are black Americans, 
while only 38 percent of crack users are black, according to the HHS 
study.
  I have said numerous times that this country's laws must deal with 
racial discrimination in as aggressive a manner as possible. I believe 
that implicit in that philosophy is a mandate to change any law that 
results in de factor racial discrimination.
  As the father of young children, I am committed to passing the 
strongest 

[[Page H 10469]]
antidrug measures possible. H.R. 2259 did not meet that standard.

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