[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 189 (Wednesday, October 27, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7411-S7412]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               EQUAL Act

  Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I first want to say before my colleague 
leaves--I know he has a packed day--when I came to the U.S. Senate, I 
found a friend, I found a mentor, and I found a leader on issues of 
justice. The incredible friend I have in the Senator from Illinois--he 
has been leading on issues from immigration reform and fighting for 
Dreamers all the way to being the principal leader on the Democratic 
side for the passage of the First Step Act.
  I will never forget that he invited me to the White House in my 
earliest days with then-President Obama, centering me on that table. I 
had just gotten here, and he then was talking about these issues--the 
issues of mass incarceration, the issues of racial discrimination and 
incarceration. What I rise to talk about really is an issue that my 
colleague has been dealing with for 35 years. He gave important 
history.

  It was a bipartisan issue 35 years ago when the Senate and House of 
Representatives voted to pass the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, and the 
President signed it into law that year. He said, very specifically, one 
of the things it did was create a massive sentencing disparity between 
crack and powder cocaine. The bill made it so that five grams of crack 
cocaine--the example that my colleague gave--carried the same mandatory 
minimum prison sentence as 500 grams of powder cocaine. That is a 100-
to-1 disparity.
  What is very powerful to me is what Maya Angelou said. She said:

       Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you 
     know better, do better.

  And that is the leadership of Senator Dick Durbin. Understanding that 
this was a failure, that the policy did not achieve its intended 
purpose--in fact, it created, as he described, the opposite--Dick 
Durbin then led this body towards the long process of making reforms 
happen.
  I was proud that when I got into the Senate, Senator Durbin told me 
the story of how we got it from 100 to 1 down to 18 to 1. It wasn't 
necessarily based on science. It wasn't necessarily based on law 
enforcement evidence. It was a negotiation between Senator Durbin and 
another Republican colleague. I love the story because Senator Durbin 
pushed for what we are asking for right now. He then fought for 1 to 1. 
He couldn't get it but was able to negotiate down from 100 to 1 to 18 
to 1.
  So what I would like to do is read real quickly the research that 
looked at cocaine use in the United States from right before this bill 
was first passed up until 2013. I want to quote:

       Despite harsher ADAA penalties for crack compared to powder 
     cocaine, there was no decrease in crack use following 
     implementation of sentencing policies . . . although both 
     powder cocaine use and misuse of prescription drugs (the 
     negative control) decreased.

  The report concluded that ``these findings suggest that mandatory 
minimum sentencing may not be an effective method of deterring cocaine 
use.''
  This has been the growing consensus about the War on Drugs on both 
sides of the aisle. It has been one that has been changing policy.
  I am so grateful for Senator Durbin's work chipping away at the 
mistakes that were made.
  During the time between when I was in law school in the 1990s and 
mayor of the largest city in my State in 2006, we saw the prison 
population explode in this country. In that period, we were building a 
new prison or jail--about 1 every 10 days. We became the place on the 
planet Earth with the most incarcerated people. One-third of all the 
women incarcerated on planet Earth are now in the United States of 
America; one out of every four incarcerated people, period--in the 
United States of America.
  A growing consensus of bipartisan work led by Senator Durbin with his 
wingman from Jersey has been beginning to undermine that, with our 
partners. So we saw the 2018 passage of the First Step Act, a bill 
which was made retroactive, and we saw thousands of people liberated 
from Federal prison who were unjustly sentenced under that 1986 law. 
The bill Senator Durbin and I wrote and introduced, the EQUAL Act--this 
is again Senator Durbin's leadership--is now our opportunity to do 
better.
  It must feel good for everyone who understands the good intentions 
but disastrous results of the crack cocaine-powder cocaine disparity. 
For all those who understand that we say equal justice under law, but 
the disproportionate impact it had on Black and Brown communities, 
further punishing African-American communities in a disproportionate 
way--in fact, incarcerated Black men at rates that we now have more 
Black men under criminal supervision in America than all the slaves in 
1850. So we are working to do better.
  The bill that I picked up to partner with Senator Durbin on passed 
the House of Representatives. And Senator Durbin hinted at this--I 
would have never expected it--it passed with overwhelming bipartisan 
support. The bill was championed by Democrats and Republicans. It 
passed with 149 Republicans voting for it, and now it is over here. The 
great thing is, our list of cosponsors, which Senator Durbin read, is 
growing. I think we will have an announcement over the next few days of 
other Republicans joining this bill.
  We can't change the past, but we can make for a better future. We 
can't undo the disparities that have disproportionately sent African 
Americans to prison, but we can make for a more equal and more just 
future.
  There is an old saying that ``the arc of the moral universe is long, 
but it bends towards justice.'' It was a Martin Luther King quote. But 
he also said that ``change does not roll in on the wheels of 
inevitability.'' It must be carried in on the backs of people who are 
willing to struggle for it, people who still believe that this Nation 
can be a symbol to this world about justice and its justice system.
  A terrible mistake was made 35 years ago. I was a teenager. There are 
people right now unjustly incarcerated--an affront to our most sacred 
ideal in this country, that of liberty. They are there because of this 
mistake. We have not fixed it. It was grievous. We have not fixed it. 
It is wrong. This is our moment. It is a moment of redemption to right 
past wrongs, to set this Nation on a more just course, to bend the arc 
of the moral universe more towards justice.
  I urge my colleagues to support this bill. I urge them to be arc 
benders. Together, we can make this a more perfect Union.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.

[[Page S7412]]