On April 28, 2011, the U.S. Sentencing Commission submitted to Congress a series of proposed amendments to the Sentencing Guidelines.1 Absent congressional action, the amendments will take effect on Nov. 1, 2011.
The changes address a wide variety of factors and respond to a series of mandates in recently enacted laws. Several stand out.2 First, the commission responded to a provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010,3 which directed it to amend the guidelines to provide for sentencing enhancements based on the amount of loss in health care fraud cases. Second, the commission re-promulgated the temporary amendments that implemented the directives in the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010.4 These include the reduction of statutory penalties for crack cocaine offenses, the elimination of the mandatory minimum for simple possession of crack cocaine, and the addition of multiple adjustments in §2D1.1(b)—both enhancing and mitigating—for drug trafficking crimes. And third, the commission made it somewhat easier for minimal participants in crimes to receive a downward adjustment.
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