Press Releases

Nadler, Jeffries & Jackson Lee Applaud House Passage of the EQUAL Act

Washington, September 28, 2021

Washington, D.C. - Today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 1693, the EQUAL Act, bipartisan legislation that eliminates the unjust sentencing disparity between crack cocaine and powder cocaine offenses, by a vote of 361-66. The legislation was favorably reported out of the House Judiciary Committee on July 21st and sent to the full House for consideration. 

"I am grateful that the House of Representatives has come together in a bipartisan fashion to pass the EQUAL Act, which will bring much needed reform to our criminal justice system" said Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY). "The EQUAL Act will once and for all end the unjust crack cocaine and powder cocaine sentencing disparity, which has greatly contributed to the rise of mass incarceration, devastated communities of color, and severely undermined public confidence in our criminal justice system. I commend Representatives Hakeem Jeffries, Bobby Scott, Kelly Armstrong, and Don Bacon for their leadership in introducing the EQUAL Act, and I implore my colleagues in the Senate to take up this long-overdue legislation without delay."

"The EQUAL Act will help reverse engineer the tragic legacy of the failed war on drugs which has devastated lives, families and communities," said Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). "There is no justification for treating powder cocaine differently than crack cocaine offenses. There is no pharmacological difference and no significant chemical difference between crack cocaine and powder cocaine, and they both cause identical effects. Crack cocaine has historically been used in inner-city communities and powder cocaine in affluent neighborhoods and the suburbs. That does not justify the wide disparity in sentencing. I thank the tremendous leadership of Rep. Armstrong and all my colleagues in the House who supported this legislation and are committed to burying the failed war on drugs and making the promise of equal justice for all a reality."

"At the core, these policies, which were a benchmark of the failed War on Drugs, were inherently racist and sought to target African Americans, other people of color and poor people with a punitive approach, rather than a restorative one," said Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Chair Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX). "H.R. 1693, the 'Eliminating a Quantifiably Unjust Application of the Law Act' or the 'EQUAL Act,' takes a long overdue and necessary step towards eliminating the unjust sentencing disparities between crack cocaine and powder cocaine offenses. This bipartisan legislation will finally allow individuals who were previously convicted or sentenced for a federal offense involving crack cocaine to petition for a sentence reduction. We must do everything in our power to end the War on Drugs and Mass Incarceration, which has disproportionately torn families apart and created fragmented communities. This legislation needs to move quickly through the Senate and onto the President’s desk so that it can become law. This is a reconciliatory step in that direction."