Rob Portman's legacy on crack

As U.S. Senator Rob Portman enters his last year of public service in the U.S. Senate, those keeping score would have to agree that his tenure has been remarkably successful by any measure. And his most significant impact may very well be yet to come.

The cocaine crimes sentencing disparity originated in the war on drugs era and imposed a mandatory federal minimum sentence for crack cocaine that was 100 times greater than that of powder cocaine. After more than 20 years of failed federal sentencing policy, Congress quite sensibly cut that ratio down to 18 to one in 2010. The EQUAL Act would further correct Congress’ original error and better align federal sentencing guidelines with the 40 states that have already eliminated the crack/powder sentencing distinction that—according to the independent and bipartisan U.S. Sentencing Commission—has resulted in significant racial discrepancies among those serving federal sentences for distributing crack cocaine.