Armstrong pleased with House passage of EQUAL Act

U.S. Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) on Tuesday commended passage by the U.S. House of Representatives of his bipartisan bill to eliminate the federal sentencing disparity between drug offenses involving crack cocaine and powder cocaine.

The House on Sept. 28 voted 361-66 to approve the Eliminating a Quantifiably Unjust Application of the Law (EQUAL) Act of 2021, H.R. 1693, which Rep. Kelly cosponsored in March with bill sponsor U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).

“Eliminating the crack-powder cocaine sentencing disparity is a step toward applying equal justice under the law. The EQUAL Act is sound, bipartisan criminal justice reform, and I thank my House colleagues on both sides of the aisle for its overwhelming passage,” Rep. Armstrong said. “I will continue to work with Representative Jeffries and advocate for it in the Senate so this long overdue legislation can get to the president’s desk and be signed into law.”

Currently, different threshold quantities of crack cocaine and powder cocaine (e.g., 28 grams of crack cocaine and 500 grams of powder cocaine) trigger the same statutory criminal penalties. If enacted, H.R. 1693 would eliminate the lower quantity thresholds for crack cocaine offenses, according to the congressional record bill summary. 

The change under the bill would apply to future cases and cases pending on the date of enactment, the summary says, and regarding past cases, the bill would authorize resentencing of a defendant who was convicted or sentenced for a crack cocaine offense before the date of enactment.

“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,” added Rep. Jeffries.

H.R. 1693 is the identical bill to the same-named S. 79, introduced in January by U.S. Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Dick Durbin (D-IL). U.S. Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) also signed on as cosponsors of the bill.