As a senator in 1986, President Joe Biden wrote the bill that established an irrational sentencing disparity between the smoked and snorted forms of cocaine, which he later called "a big mistake" that "trapped an entire generation." This week Congress squandered yet another opportunity to correct Biden's big mistake, which mandated especially severe punishment for crack offenders based on an arbitrary distinction with no scientific basis.
The omnibus spending bill that was released early Tuesday morning did not include legislation addressing crack cocaine penalties. Republicans who had been open to that proposal reportedly balked after Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memo last Friday that instructed federal prosecutors to "promote the equivalent treatment of crack and powder cocaine offenses" in their charging decisions and sentencing recommendations.
