NEWS: SENATE FAILURE TO INCLUDE EQUAL ACT IN OMNIBUS BILL WILL HAVE TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES

After A Two-Year Battle, Historic, Bipartisan Legislation to Eliminate Sentencing Disparity Between Crack and Powder Cocaine that Passed the House 361-66 Fails to Make End-of-Year Spending Package

 “It is a searing indictment of a broken Beltway.”

Washington, DC – Early this morning, Congressional leaders released text of an agreed end-of-year "omnibus" spending bill to fund the federal government, and the EQUAL Act, one of the final issues on the table for inclusion, failed to make the cut. The Eliminating a Quantifiably Unjust Application of the Law Act of 2021, or EQUAL Act, would have eliminated the 18:1 federal sentencing disparity between drug offenses involving crack cocaine and powder cocaine, a relic of the War on Drugs. Champions worked for two years to pass the bill, winning an overwhelming bipartisan 361-66 vote in the House of Representatives in September of 2021.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a co-sponsor of the legislation, promised to make the EQUAL Act a top priority.  After failing to give the bill a floor vote prior to mid-term elections, Schumer and Congressional leaders attempted to include compromise language agreed to by Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley in the federal spending bill, language that was ultimately blocked by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, despite co-sponsorship by 11 members of his own caucus and support from law enforcement and civil rights leaders in his home state. Barring a miracle, this means the EQUAL Act will die in the Senate – and thousands of families will once again be left out in the cold.

In response, Holly Harris, President and Executive Director of the Justice Action Network, the country’s largest organization advancing bipartisan criminal justice reform at the state and federal levels, issued the following statement:

"They say success has a million fathers, and failure is an orphan. There is plenty of blame to go around for the failure of the EQUAL Act to get a vote in the United States Senate, but do not let the political gamesmanship obscure the consequences here: the reality is that thousands of people, mostly Black men, imprisoned for decades due to an unjust drug sentencing disparity we had more than enough votes to end this year, will be left behind."

“It is a searing indictment of a broken Beltway when a bill that passed the House with an overwhelming bipartisan vote, endorsed by law enforcement and civil rights leaders alike, with 11 Republican co-sponsors and filibuster-proof majority support in the Senate, and an agreement between the relevant committee Chairman and Ranking Member for inclusion in the end-of-year package, fails to make it to the President’s desk. The American people deserve better.

“To that end, we will continue to work alongside those who fought to end the worst vestige of injustice in America’s drug policy, especially our bipartisan sponsors Reps. Hakeem Jeffries and Kelly Armstrong, and Senate sponsors Sen. Cory Booker and Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, as well as all Republican co-sponsors such as Sens. Lindsey Graham and Thom Tillis. These lawmakers are on the right side of history, and with their leadership, we will end this disparity once and for all." 
The EQUAL Act was co-sponsored by Majority Leader Schumer and Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Rob Portman (R-OH), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Rand Paul (R-KY), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Chis Coons (D-DE), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Richard Burr (R-NC), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Roy Blunt (R-MO), and Ed Markey (D-MA). 

The EQUAL Act had unprecedented law enforcement support and endorsements from groups across the political and ideological spectrum, including:  

A Beautiful Heart Ministries

ALEC Action

American Civil Liberties Union

Americans for Prosperity

Americans for Tax Reform

Association of Prosecuting Attorneys

Black Public Defender Association

Buckeye Institute

Catholic Mobilizing Network

Catholic Prison Ministries Coalition

Center for American Progress

Citizen Action – NY

Color of Change

Digital Liberty

Dream Corps JUSTICE

Drug Policy Alliance

Due Process Institute

Empower Mississippi

Eternal Vigilance Action

Fair Trials

FAMM

Federal Public and Community Defenders

FreedomWorks

Georgia Center for Opportunity

Human Rights for Kids

Incarcerated Nation Network, Inc

Innocence Project

Jesuit Conference, Office of Justice and Ecology

Justice Action Network

Justice Roundtable

JustLeadershipUSA

Kentucky Sheriffs' Association

The Ladies of Hope Ministries, Inc.

Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

Major Cities Chiefs Association

NAACP New York Conference

National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers

National Basketball Social Justice Coalition

National District Attorneys Association

National Legal Aid & Defender Association

National Urban League

New Yorkers United for Justice

Pegasus Institute

Pelican Institute

Prison Fellowship

R Street Institute

REFORM Alliance

Students for Sensible Drug Policy

Taxpayers Protection Alliance

The Sentencing Project

Tzedek Association

Vera Institute of Justice

Eric Adams, Mayor of the City of New York

Chief Joe Monroe, President, Kentucky Association of Chiefs of Police

Mark Holden, Chairman, Americans for Prosperity Foundation Board

Matthew Whitaker, Former Acting Attorney General, Department of Justice, United States