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[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1466 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1466

   To concentrate Federal resources aimed at the prosecution of drug 
               offenses on those offenses that are major.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 12, 2009

 Ms. Waters (for herself, Mr. Scott of Virginia, Ms. Corrine Brown of 
Florida, Mr. Meeks of New York, Ms. Kilpatrick of Michigan, Ms. Norton, 
Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Ms. Clarke, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Hastings of Florida, 
 Mr. Ellison, Mr. Pastor of Arizona, Mr. Stark, Ms. Fudge, Mr. Fattah, 
  and Mr. Davis of Illinois) introduced the following bill; which was 
  referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and in addition to the 
   Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a period to be subsequently 
   determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
 provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
   To concentrate Federal resources aimed at the prosecution of drug 
               offenses on those offenses that are major.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Major Drug Trafficking Prosecution 
Act of 2009''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Since the enactment of mandatory minimum sentencing for 
        drug users, the Federal Bureau of Prisons budget increased from 
        $220 million in 1986 to $5.4 billion in 2008.
            (2) Mandatory minimum sentences are statutorily prescribed 
        terms of imprisonment that automatically attach upon conviction 
        of certain criminal conduct, usually pertaining to drug or 
        firearm offenses. Absent very narrow criteria for relief, a 
        sentencing judge is powerless to mandate a term of imprisonment 
        below the mandatory minimum. Mandatory minimum sentences for 
        drug offenses rely solely upon the weight of the substance as a 
        proxy for the degree of involvement of a defendant's role.
            (3) Mandatory minimum sentences have consistently been 
        shown to have a disproportionate impact on African Americans. 
        The United States Sentencing Commission, in a 15-year overview 
        of the Federal sentencing system, concluded that ``mandatory 
        penalty statutes are used inconsistently'' and 
        disproportionately affect African American defendants. As a 
        result, African American drug defendants are 20 percent more 
        likely to be sentenced to prison than white drug defendants.
            (4) In the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, Congress structured 
        antidrug penalties to encourage the Department of Justice to 
        concentrate its enforcement effort against high-level and 
        major-level drug traffickers, and provided new, long mandatory 
        minimum sentences for such offenders, correctly recognizing the 
        Federal role in the combined Federal-State drug enforcement 
        effort.
            (5) Between 1994 and 2003, the average time served by 
        African Americans for a drug offense increased by 62 percent, 
        compared with a 17 percent increase among white drug 
        defendants. Much of this disparity is attributable to the 
        severe penalties associated with crack cocaine.
            (6) African Americans, on average, now serve almost as much 
        time in Federal prison for a drug offense (58.7 months) as 
        whites do for a violent offense (61.7 months).
            (7) Linking drug quantity with punishment severity has had 
        a particularly profound impact on women, who are more likely to 
        play peripheral roles in a drug enterprise than men. However, 
        because prosecutors can attach drug quantities to an individual 
        regardless of the level of culpability of a defendant's 
        participation in the charged offense, women have been exposed 
        to increasingly punitive sentences to incarceration.
            (8) In 2003, the States sentenced more than 340,000 drug 
        offenders to felony convictions, compared to 25,000 Federal 
        felony drug convictions.
            (9) Low-level and mid-level drug offenders can be 
        adequately prosecuted by the States and punished or supervised 
        in treatment as appropriate.
            (10) Federal drug enforcement resources are not being 
        properly focused, as only 12.8 percent of powder cocaine 
        prosecutions and 8.4 percent of crack cocaine prosecutions were 
        brought against high-level traffickers, according to the Report 
        to Congress: Cocaine and Federal Sentencing Policy, issued May, 
        2007 by the United States Sentencing Commission.
            (11) According to the Report to Congress, ``The majority of 
        federal cocaine offenders generally perform low-level functions 
        . . .''.
            (12) The Departments of Justice, Treasury, and Homeland 
        Security are the agencies with the greatest capacity to 
        investigate, prosecute and dismantle the highest level of drug 
        trafficking organizations, and investigations and prosecutions 
        of low-level offenders divert Federal personnel and resources 
        from the prosecution of the highest-level traffickers, for 
        which such agencies are best suited.
            (13) Congress must have the most current information on the 
        number of prosecutions of high-level and low-level drug 
        offenders in order to properly reauthorize Federal drug 
        enforcement programs.
            (14) One consequence of the improper focus of Federal 
        cocaine prosecutions has been that the overwhelming majority of 
        low-level offenders subject to the heightened crack cocaine 
        penalties are black and according to the Report to Congress 
        only 8.8 percent of Federal crack cocaine convictions were 
        imposed on whites, while 81.8 percent and 8.4 percent were 
        imposed on blacks and Hispanics, respectively
            (15) According to the 2002 Report to Congress: Cocaine and 
        Federal Sentencing Policy, issued May, 2002 by the United 
        States Sentencing Commission, there is ``a widely-held 
        perception that the current penalty structure for federal 
        cocaine offenses promotes unwarranted disparity based on 
        race''.
            (16) African Americans comprise 12 percent of the US 
        population and 14 percent of drug users, but 30 percent of all 
        Federal drug convictions.
            (17) Drug offenders released from prison in 1986 who had 
        been sentenced before the adoption of mandatory sentences and 
        sentencing guidelines had served an average of 22 months in 
        prison. Offenders sentenced in 2004, after the adoption of 
        mandatory sentences, were expected to serve almost three times 
        that length, or 62 months in prison.
            (18) According to the Justice Department, the time spent in 
        prison does not affect recidivism rates.
            (19) Government surveys document that drug use is fairly 
        consistent across racial and ethnic groups. While there is less 
        data available regarding drug sellers, research finds that drug 
        users generally buy drugs from someone of their own racial or 
        ethnic background. But almost three-quarters of all Federal 
        narcotics cases are filed against blacks and Hispanics, many of 
        whom are low-level offenders.

SEC. 3. APPROVAL OF CERTAIN PROSECUTIONS BY ATTORNEY GENERAL.

    A Federal prosecution for an offense under the Controlled 
Substances Act, the Controlled Substances Import and Export Act, or for 
any conspiracy to commit such an offense, where the offense involves 
the illegal distribution or possession of a controlled substance in an 
amount less than that amount specified as a minimum for an offense 
under section 401(b)(1)(A) of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 
841(b)(1)(A)) or, in the case of any substance containing cocaine or 
cocaine base, in an amount less than 500 grams, shall not be commenced 
without the prior written approval of the Attorney General.

SEC. 4. MODIFICATION OF CERTAIN SENTENCING PROVISIONS.

    (a) Section 404.--Section 404(a) of the Controlled Substances Act 
(21 U.S.C. 844(a)) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``not less than 15 days but'';
            (2) by striking ``not less than 90 days but'';
            (3) by striking ``not less than 5 years and''; and
            (4) by striking the sentence beginning ``The imposition or 
        execution of a minimum sentence''.
    (b) Section 401.--Section 401(b) of the Controlled Substances Act 
(21 U.S.C. 841(b)) is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (1)(A)--
                    (A) by striking ``which may not be less than 10 
                years and or more than'' and inserting ``for any term 
                of years or for'';
                    (B) by striking ``and if death'' the first place it 
                appears and all that follows through ``20 years or more 
                than life'' the first place it appears;
                    (C) by striking ``which may not be less than 20 
                years and not more than life imprisonment'' and 
                inserting ``for any term of years or for life'';
                    (D) by inserting ``imprisonment for any term of 
                years or'' after ``if death or serious bodily injury 
                results from the use of such substance shall be 
                sentenced to'';
                    (E) by striking the sentence beginning ``If any 
                person commits a violation of this subparagraph'';
                    (F) by striking the sentence beginning 
                ``Notwithstanding any other provision of law'' and the 
                sentence beginning ``No person sentenced''; and
            (2) in paragraph (1)(B)--
                    (A) by striking ``which may not be less than 5 
                years and'' and inserting ``for'';
                    (B) by striking ``not less than 20 years or more 
                than'' and inserting ``for any term of years or to'';
                    (C) by striking ``which may not be less than 10 
                years and more than'' and inserting ``for any term of 
                years or for'';
                    (D) by inserting ``imprisonment for any term of 
                years or to'' after ``if death or serious bodily injury 
                results from the use of such substance shall be 
                sentenced to'';
                    (E) by striking the sentence beginning 
                ``Notwithstanding any other provision of law''.
    (c) Section 1010.--Section 1010(b) of the Controlled Substances 
Import and Export Act (21 U.S.C. 960(b)) is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (1)--
                    (A) by striking ``of not less than 10 years and not 
                more than'' and inserting ``for any term of years or 
                for'';
                    (B) by striking ``and if death'' the first place it 
                appears and all that follows through ``20 years and not 
                more than life'' the first place it appears;
                    (C) by striking ``of not less than 20 years and not 
                more than life imprisonment'' and inserting ``for any 
                term of years or for life'';
                    (D) by inserting ``imprisonment for any term of 
                years or to'' after ``if death or serious bodily injury 
                results from the use of such substance shall be 
                sentenced to'';
                    (E) by striking the sentence beginning 
                ``Notwithstanding any other provision of law''; and
            (2) in paragraph (2)--
                    (A) by striking ``not less than 5 years and'';
                    (B) by striking ``of not less than twenty years and 
                not more than'' and inserting ``for any term of years 
                or for'';
                    (C) by striking ``of not less than 10 years and not 
                more than'' and inserting ``for any term of years or 
                to'';
                    (D) by inserting ``imprisonment for any term of 
                years or to'' after ``if death or serious bodily injury 
                results from the use of such substance shall be 
                sentenced to'';
                    (E) by striking the sentence beginning 
                ``Notwithstanding any other provision of law''.
    (d) Section 418.--Section 418 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 
U.S.C. 859) is amended by striking the sentence beginning ``Except to 
the extent'' each place it appears and by striking the sentence 
beginning ``The mandatory minimum''.
    (e) Section 419.--Section 419 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 
U.S.C. 860) is amended by striking the sentence beginning ``Except to 
the extent'' each place it appears and by striking the sentence 
beginning ``The mandatory minimum''.
    (f) Section 420.--Section 420 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 
U.S.C. 861) is amended--
            (1) in each of subsections (b) and (c), by striking the 
        sentence beginning ``Except to the extent'';
            (2) by striking subsection (e); and
            (3) in subsection (f), by striking ``, (c), and (e)'' and 
        inserting ``and (c)''.
                                 <all>
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