Today, the House of Representatives passed S 1789 the Fair Sentencing Act with bi-partisan support and the bill now goes to President Obama for his signature. This important reform to the unfair and unnecessary crack cocaine sentencing law reduces the disparity between sentencing for drug crimes involving crack cocaine versus powder cocaine. Until now, possessing or dealing five grams of crack cocaine—the weight of two pennies—resulted in the same five-year mandatory minimum sentence as dealing 500 grams of powder cocaine. This bill reduces this discriminatory 100 to 1 disparity to an 18 to 1 disparity. The bill isn't perfect, but it is a vast improvement over current law and will help prevent unjust sentences in 3,000 cases a year as soon as the President signs it.