The House Judiciary Committee voted unanimously Wednesday morning to send the Sentencing Reform Act to the House floor.
The criminal justice reform legislation garnered broad bipartisan support in the markup. Its passage was expected, as it was introduced by Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich., and several other committee members from both parties.
Its companion bill in the Senate was approved last month with similar bipartisan support in the Senate Judiciary Committee, and was sent to the Senate floor.
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The bill would reduce mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses, and would, for example, turn the three-strike mandatory life sentence to 25 years. It also expands chances for non-violent drug offenders to be given lower sentences, and includes language aimed at ensuring violent criminals serve out their full terms.
The committee also approved an amendment that would push for mental health issues to be a critical component of criminal justice reform, and require the Justice Department and Sentencing Commission to update their 2011 mandatory minimum sentencing report.
“H.R. 3713 does not achieve all of what I and many of my colleagues would want. However, today we have the opportunity, on a bipartisan basis, to address some of the injustices of these laws and to provide retroactive relief for some of those who have been subject to them,” Conyers said in his prepared opening statement.
Organizations such as the American Bar Association and Families Against Mandatory Minimums voiced support for the Sentencing Reform Act head of Wednesday’s hearing.
BREAKING: #HR3713 – the Sentencing Reform Act of 2015 – has passed by voice vote.
Read more here: https://t.co/rlwwe6MJSG
— House Judiciary ⚖ (@HouseJudiciary) November 18, 2015
“We believe that H.R. 3713 will, overall, create a more just sentencing system than the one currently in place,” ABA President Paulette Brown said in a letter to the committee. The committee is also in the process of marking up four other over-criminalization bills introduced Tuesday.
“This vote today is a significant step toward reducing the federal prison population,” Michael Collins, deputy director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance, said in a statement. “We have a bill moving in the Senate, and now we have a companion bill moving in the House, so I’m optimistic we’ll have legislation on the president’s desk in a matter of months.”
