President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union speech. (Photo by Larry Downing-Pool/Getty Images)
The White House is threatening to veto a House Appropriations bill that blocks the decriminalization of marijuana in D.C. and the use of local funds for abortion.
“The bill impedes implementation of the Affordable Care Act, undermines critical components of Wall Street reform, and fails to provide the resources necessary to provide robust taxpayer services and improve tax enforcement,” a letter from the Office of Management and Budget states. “Further, the legislation includes ideological and political provisions that are beyond the scope of funding legislation. If the President were presented with H.R. 5016, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill.”
A section of the letter is devoted to the various ways that the bill undermines “the
principle of States’ rights and of District home rule,” including “preventing the District from using its own local funds to carry out locally- passed marijuana policies.”
An amendment to the Appropriations bill to block decriminalization in D.C. was introduced by Maryland Republic Andy Harris, a physician who believes the policy will harm teenagers. In an interview with WAMU, Harris had a message for the residents of D.C.: Move if you don’t like my right to interfere.
“If somebody wants voting rights, the Constitution is clear: They go to a state, not the federal enclave, and they have voting rights,” he said. If they’re in the federal enclave, then Congress is their local legislature.”
