Date: 2016-05-12
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Chairman. it has been refreshing and important to listen to the many Members from all over the country discussing this important initiative and. more proudly. it is from the Judiciary Committee. which is the holder of the laws and the Constitution of this land. We are here indicating an admittance and a recognition that addiction. and opioids. and all kinds of addictions are not necessarily a crime. and that we do not come to this floor. in this bill. with mandatory minimums. So I want to follow up on some statements that I made on the floor yesterday and also in the Rules Committee concerning the contrast in the way we are dealing with the opioid crisis and the way we addressed crack cocaine in the 1980s. Many of those individuals from neighborhoods like mine. many of them still are incarcerated. And at that time. weI was not hereCongress took action that we are still trying to rectify. At one point. more than 80 percent of the defendants sentenced for crack cocaine offenses were African Americans. despite the fact that more than 66 percent of crack users were either White or Hispanic. As we work on other legislation to address the enforcement and sentencing disparities related to crack issues. we must reexamine our approach to that and other drug issues. I think we are on the right track. I think we are being fair. This week. the House has been engaged in a comprehensive approach to addressing a serious public health crisis involving heroin and other opioids. In my earlier statement. I complimented my chairman of the full committee and my chairman of the subcommittee because we are working together. Overdoses and deaths involving heroin are on the rise. While law enforcement has an appropriate role. the bills. including H.R. 5046 before us now. reflect a broader strategy that reflects the fact that this is an addiction issue. I know that Mr. CONYERS and many others who are on this floor. Mr. DAVIS. we come from innercity communities. and we have watched the young people of our community die and lose their future life through crack cocaine. Accordingly. we are not raising sentences or impacting mandatory minimums. but we are funding antiaddiction mechanisms such as treatment alternatives to incarceration. and we are bringing in the police persons. the police departments. What a great idea: criminal justice and substance abuse and police persons dealing with this issue in a nonincarceration mode. We are not adding to mass incarceration with all of the related and devastating collateral consequences but. instead. we are incentivizing State and local governments to prevent. treat. and heal. That is what we should be doing. and that is what we should have done for crack and cocaine addicts. We are learning. We understand now that we have a different pathway. but it is not too late. So I am saying to my colleagues here as we are working together. we should find a way before Congress has completed its work on this legislation and send a bill to the President that applies a more comprehensive approach. or a comprehensive approach that adds to this very strong foundation. including treatment alternatives for those who may still be suffering from crack and cocaine addiction. I remember signing the sentencing. the reduction bill that we had in 2009 dealing with the crack cocaine disparities. We came together as a bipartisan group. So I know that these are things that we can do. I have had this issue and discussed it with the gentleman from Michigan