[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 115 (Tuesday, July 22, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1203]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


  SUPPORTING UNANIMOUS DECISION OF U.S. SENTENCING COMMISSION MAKING 
 RETROACTIVE THE REDUCTION IN SENTENCING GUIDELINES APPLICABLE TO MOST 
                   FEDERAL DRUG TRAFFICKING OFFENDERS

                                  _____
                                 

                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 22, 2014

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise to applaud the unanimous vote of 
the U.S. Sentencing Commission to apply retroactively the reduction in 
the sentencing guideline levels applicable to most federal drug 
trafficking offenders.
  This action is welcome news to the families and loved ones of the 
estimated 46,290 persons eligible to have their cases reviewed by a 
judge to determine if their sentence should be reduced by on average of 
25 months, or as much as 18.8 percent.
  The United States incarcerates nearly 25 percent of the world's 
inmates, even though it only has 5 percent of the world's population. 
Thirty years ago, there were less than 30,000 inmates in the federal 
system; today, there are nearly 216,000, an increase of 800 percent.
  This over-crowding of our federal prison system--at an annual cost of 
about $6.5 billion--is the direct and proximate result of the 
proliferation of offenses carrying mandatory-minimums and the 
discriminatory 100-1 disparity between crack and powder cocaine 
sentences in federal law.
  African Americans and Hispanics comprise more than 6 in 10 federal 
inmates incarcerated for drug offenses. And African American offenders 
receive sentences that are 10 percent longer than white offenders for 
the same crimes and are 21 percent more likely to receive mandatory-
minimum sentences than white defendants according to the U.S. 
Sentencing Commission.
  The decision by the U.S. Sentencing Commission is particularly 
gratifying to those of us who worked tirelessly over the last two 
decades to restore balance and justice to federal drug sentencing 
policy.
  In 2005, I introduced the ``No More Tulias Act of 2005'' (H.R. 2620) 
in response to the infamous drug task force scandal in Tulia, Texas 
that occurred six years earlier, during which 15 percent of the town's 
African American population was arrested, prosecuted and sentenced to 
decades in prison based on the uncorroborated testimony of a federally 
funded undercover officer with a record of racial impropriety.
  Later, in 2007, I introduced the ``Drug Sentencing Reform and Cocaine 
Kingpin Trafficking Act of 2007'' (H.R. 4545), bipartisan legislation 
eliminating the unjust and discriminatory 100 to 1 disparity between 
crack and powder cocaine sentences in federal law. Companion 
legislation in the Senate was introduced by then Senator Joseph Biden 
of Delaware (S. 1711).
  Three years later, this effort bore fruit when the Congress passed 
and President Obama signed into law the ``Fair Sentencing Act of 2010'' 
(P.L. 111-220), which finally ended the 100:1 ratio that had resulted 
in unconscionable racial disparities in the average length of sentences 
for comparable offenses.
  But a large gap remained in the justice provided by this landmark 
legislation: its provisions were not retroactive. That gap has been 
filled today by the unanimous vote of the Sentencing Commission.
  Beginning in November of this year, all federal inmates sentenced 
under the old regime are to be afforded the opportunity to have their 
sentences reconsidered under the provisions of current law, and those 
eligible for release may be reunited with their families and loved ones 
as early as November 2015.
  Mr. Speaker, the vote today by the Sentencing Commission is a giant 
step in the right direction as it makes federal drug sentencing policy 
and practice fairer for all, helps save the taxpayers millions of 
dollars annually, and reaffirms the premise that the men and women who 
have paid their debt to society are worthy of a second chance to redeem 
their lives and contribute to their communities.

                          ____________________