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Here we go again: House Republicans are still trying to mess with D.C.’s marijuana laws.

A House spending bill introduced yesterday includes language that would block D.C. from pursuing any legislation to introduce a marijuana taxation and regulation system. Additionally, the rider includes language to block D.C. from using any money to legalize the possession of marijuana.

While the former part of the rider’s language is a bummer, the latter is actually being lauded by marijuana activists as a sign that Republicans are becoming more mellow about progressive marijuana laws. “I’m pleasantly surprised that the rider that they did include was not more restrictive,” Dan Riffle, director of Federal Policies at the Marijuana Policy Project, told the Washington Times. “I fully expected them to include tougher language explicitly naming the law in the language of the rider.”

The language in the new rider is identical to language adopted last year, before D.C.’s recent marijuana legalization law took effect and, the fact that it remains unchanged and doesn’t explicitly call out Initiative 71, means policy experts are interpreting it as a sign of progression among House Republicans.

Of course, marijuana activists are still pretty pissed about the part of the rider’s language preventing D.C. from pursuing taxation and regulation of pot. “At a time when marijuana legalization polls much better with voters than Congress does, it’s baffling that House leadership would want to continue standing in the way of these popular, locally-enacted reforms,” Marijuana Majority chairman Tom Angell said in a statement. “If there’s a floor vote on an amendment to strip this language from the bill I think we have a really good shot of assembling a bipartisan majority of lawmakers who will stand up for letting D.C. enact its own marijuana policies without interference.”

Angell says he’s optimistic that the rider could still be removed from the budget. “While Congressional leadership still seems to be stuck in a 1980s mindset on marijuana, a series of floor votes on the issue from just last week shows that the rank-and-file membership of the House knows which way the political winds are blowing,” he said. “Standing in the way of marijuana reform just isn’t good politics these days.”