A bill to disapprove of amendments to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines relating to lowering of crack sentences and sentences for money laundering and transactions in property derived from unlawful activity.

Disapproves the U.S. Sentencing Commission's amendments to the Sentencing Guidelines relating to: (1) equalization of crack and cocaine powder quantities for trafficking and possession offenses; and (2) money laundering and transactions in property derived from unlawful activity. (Sec. 2) Directs the Sentencing Commission to submit to the Congress recommendations regarding changes to the statutes and Sentencing Guidelines governing sentences for unlawful manufacturing, importing, exporting, and trafficking of cocaine and like offenses. Requires the recommendations to reflect the following considerations: (1) the sentence for trafficking in crack cocaine should generally exceed that imposed for trafficking in a like quantity of powder cocaine; (2) high-level cocaine traffickers should generally receive longer sentences than low-level traffickers; (3) a defendant who knowingly traffics in powder cocaine that will be converted into crack cocaine prior to its distribution to individuals should be treated at sentencing as though the defendant had trafficked in crack cocaine; and (4) an enhanced sentence should generally be imposed on a defendant who, in the course of an offense, murders or causes serious bodily injury to an individual, uses a dangerous weapon or possesses a firearm, involves a juvenile, a pregnant woman, or an unusually vulnerable person, engages in a continuing cr…

Congressional Research Service · 1995-09-29