Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 and Status on Public Safety Collective Bargaining

Federal Cocaine Sentencing Disparity: The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010

Prior to Congress breaking for August recess, it passed the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, (S. 1789) and on August 3, 2010, President Obama signed this legislation into law (P.L. 111-220). The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 reduces the penalties set forth by Congress in 1986 from the statutory 100:1 ratio of crack cocaine to powder cocaine down to 18:1. Consequently, the law increases the threshold amount of crack cocaine to 28 grams for a 5-year sentence and 280 grams for a 10-year sentence. This legislation also eliminates the 5-year mandatory minimum for simple possession of crack cocaine.

When this legislation was first introduced in October of 2009, the Fair Sentencing Act would have eliminated the present 100:1 sentencing ratio for crack versus powder cocaine offenses and instead create a 5-year mandatory minimum for simple possession of 500 grams of either crack or powder cocaine. However, after five months of negotiations with lawmakers, NAPO worked with Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), to address our concerns regarding the complete elimination of the sentencing disparity.

NAPO understands that crack cocaine has been more closely linked to violence thus presenting a greater danger to our communities and law enforcement personnel. As crack cocaine is usually sold in much smaller quantities than powder cocaine, NAPO believes that completely eliminating the sentencing  disparity would have negatively affected the hard work law enforcement does to protect our communities.  

Other bills introduced in the 111^th Congress would have completely eliminated the statutory disparity in cocaine sentencing. Some would have gone so far as to repeal all statutory mandatory minimums for drug offenses. The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 doesn’t totally eliminate the disparity in the threshold amount of powder cocaine and crack cocaine that triggers the mandatory minimums, and NAPO will continue to monitor the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the revised federal sentencing guidelines.  

National Public Safety Collective Bargaining: Status Update

As Congress returns from August recess NAPO will continue its efforts for the passage of the National Public Safety Collective Bargaining legislation. NAPO firmly believes that law enforcement officers, who put their lives on the line every day to serve and protect our nation and its communities, should be granted the basic American right of bargaining collectively for wages, hours, and safe working conditions.

The Collective Bargaining Bill passed the House as an amendment to the War Supplemental Appropriations Act (H.R. 4899) on July 1^st. On July 22, 2010, the Senate passed the Supplemental Appropriations Act without collective bargaining and H.R. 4899 without the collective bargaining provisions, became public law on July 29^th, 2010. The collective bargaining amendment was removed from the war supplemental not because of its lack of support, but because of the amendment’s additional inclusion of controversial teacher funding to the tune of $25-$30 billion dollars.  

Through NAPO’s continued legislative efforts it appears the Senate does have enough votes to support collective bargaining. It is unclear if collective bargaining will come up as another amendment or if it will be presented as a standalone bill. Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) reintroduced the bill as S. 3194 in the beginning of April, which allows it to bypass committee and go straight to the floor.   

The Senate resumes on September 13^th from August recess and Senate leadership has committed to us to call up their version of the collective bargaining bill for Senate action upon return. NAPO will do everything to continue to push this issue to the forefront of the legislative agenda for the remainder of the 111^th Congress.