I 
116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 7194 
To eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for all drug offenses. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 11, 2020 
Ms. WATERS (for herself, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. NOR-
TON, Mr. POCAN, and Mr. KHANNA) 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 de-
termined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions 
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for all drug 
offenses. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Mandatory Minimum 
Reform Act of 2020’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress makes the following findings: 
(1) Mandatory minimum sentences are statu-
torily prescribed terms of imprisonment that auto-
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matically attach upon conviction of certain criminal 
conduct, often pertaining to drug offenses. Absent 
very narrow criteria for relief, a sentencing judge is 
powerless to mandate a term of imprisonment below 
the mandatory minimum. Mandatory minimum sen-
tences for drug offenses rely solely upon the weight 
of the substance as a proxy for the defendant’s role 
and degree of involvement. 
(2) In the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, and 
at the height of the public concern over crack co-
caine, Congress acted hastily, without sufficient 
hearings, and enacted hard line penalties that tar-
geted low-level drug offenders. These penalties in-
cluded new, long mandatory minimum sentences for 
such offenders. 
(3) According to the Bureau of Prisons, in 
1986, when the new drug law containing lengthy 
mandatory minimum sentences passed, the prison 
population was 36,000. Today, the Federal prison 
population is over 177,000 up over 390 percent in 
33 years. 
(4) According to the Bureau of Prisons, the av-
erage cost to keep one prisoner in Federal prison for 
the fiscal year of 2017 was $36,299.25, which 
equates to $99.45 per day. 
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(5) Annual spending on the Federal prison sys-
tem rose by over 600 percent, from roughly 
$966,000,000 to more than $6.9 billion in inflation- 
adjusted dollars, between 1980 and 2015. 
(6) According to the U.S. Sentencing Commis-
sion, 69,425 offenders were sentenced in fiscal year 
2018. Of those, 18,964 offenders were sentenced for 
a drug trafficking offense; with over half (58.4 per-
cent) of all drug trafficking offenders convicted of 
an offense carrying a mandatory minimum penalty. 
(7) According to the U.S. Sentencing Commis-
sion, drug offenders released from prison in 1986 
who had been sentenced before the adoption of man-
datory sentences and sentencing guidelines had 
served an average of 22 months in prison. In fiscal 
year 2018, the average sentence for drug trafficking 
offenders subject to a mandatory minimum penalty 
was more than 10 years (131 months; 62 months 
with relief). 
(8) In fiscal year 2016, many of those offenders 
convicted of an offense carrying a mandatory min-
imum sentence were nonviolent or low-level offend-
ers. According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, 
only 28.7 percent of convictions for drug trafficking 
offenses carrying a mandatory minimum penalty in-
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volved the use of a weapon, violence, or threats of 
violence. Only 11.7 percent of offenders convicted of 
such offenses played a leadership role. 
(9) Mandatory minimum sentences have histori-
cally been shown to have a disproportionate impact 
on African Americans. The United States Sen-
tencing Commission, in a 15-year overview of the 
Federal sentencing system, concluded that ‘‘manda-
tory penalty statutes are used inconsistently’’ and 
disproportionately affect African-American defend-
ants. According to another United States Sentencing 
Commission report, in fiscal year 2016, of the 8,342 
offenders who were subject to a Federal mandatory 
minimum penalty at sentencing, Black offenders 
were the largest group, representing 35.5 percent, 
followed by White offenders, who represented 31.1 
percent, and Hispanic offenders, who represented 
30.9 percent. 
(10) According to the U.S. Sentencing Commis-
sion, between 1994 and 2003, the average time 
served by African Americans for a drug offense in-
creased by 62 percent, compared to a 17-percent in-
crease among White drug defendants. 
(11) According to the Substance Abuse and 
Mental Health Services Administration, surveys have 
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documented that drug use is roughly consistent 
across racial and ethnic groups. While there is less 
data available regarding drug sellers, research from 
the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the 
National Institute of Justice has found that drug 
users generally buy drugs from someone of their own 
racial or ethnic background. But, according to the 
U.S. Sentencing Commission, about 73 percent of all 
drug offenders sentenced in 2018 were African 
American and Hispanic, many of whom are low-level 
offenders. 
(12) As a result of Federal prosecutors’ focus 
on low-level drug offenders, the overwhelming major-
ity of individuals subject to the heightened crack co-
caine penalties are African American. According to 
the U.S. Sentencing Commission, in fiscal year 
2016, of those offenders sentenced on Federal crack 
cocaine charges, only 5.5 percent were White, while 
82.6 percent and 11.4 percent were African Amer-
ican and Hispanic, respectively. 
(13) According to the U.S. Census, African 
Americans comprise 13.3 percent of the U.S. popu-
lation, but according to the U.S. Sentencing Com-
mission, in fiscal year 2018 African Americans made 
up 24.9 percent of all drug trafficking offenders. 
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