REPUBLICANS TAKE AIM AT MARIJUANA REFERENDUM

As city leaders fight to protect the D.C. voter referendum to legalize
medical marijuana, GOP Congressional sources warn there is more at stake
than home rule.

The District's fiscal 2000 budget may emerge from the battle with less
funding for the city if President Clinton vetoes the budget in the interest
of supporting District voters' rights, GOPsources said. But the Clinton
administration disputes that contention.

"There is no reason that a possible [continuing resolution] should lead to
a situation which would deprive the District of Columbia of funding," said
Office of Management and Budget spokeswoman Linda Ricci.

The conference report contains an amendment written by Rep. Bob Barr
(R-Ga.) that would block implementation of medical marijuana use in the
District even though measure 59 passed with 69 percent of the vote.

Clinton has vowed to veto the bill in opposition to the legislative riders
attached to the budget. He is slated to receive the bill today and has 10
days to act.

Meanwhile, Barr has threatened to introduce legislation that would block
the marijuana referendum if his language doesn't pass with the
appropriations package.

House Appropriations subcommittee on the District Chairman Ernest Istook
(R-Okla.) and Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) hope to convince the President to sign
the bill in the interest of preserving funding for the district.

Istook spokeswoman Micah Swafford explained that the 1997 budget caps could
hurt the D.C. bill if Clinton sends the bill back to the Hill and it gets
tossed into omnibus appropriations legislation.

"If the D.C. bill is combined with several other bills, money will
definitely be taken from the D.C. bill to fund other projects in other
bills," she said.

And the chances of appropriators revising the bill on its own and sending
it back to the president as a stand-alone entity are slim.

But while Clinton has not stated full support for the medicinal use of
marijuana, he has supported the measure as an act of self-government by the
District.

Ricci said Clinton still stands by his veto threat. "There are a wide range
of provisions in this [bill] that would keep the District from being able
to run its business freely and in a way that is consistent with home rule,"
she said.

Congress has 30 days to proactively stop measure 59 from being enacted. If
the fiscal 2000 appropriations bill is signed into public law, the medical
marijuana initiative will be essentially nullified, GOP sources said.

But Barr has his own plan of attack, drafting legislation yesterday to stop
the legalization in the event of a presidential veto on the appropriations
bill. Barr said he will introduce this new bill if the D.C. City Council
moves to enact measure 59.

"Despite the lofty rhetoric we hear from Washington activists, the District
of Columbia is the only federal political jurisdiction in the United
States," Barr said.

D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams (D) has "regrettably" asked Clinton to veto the
D.C. appropriations bill because of all of the social riders attached to
it. The mayor has supported the medical marijuana initiative since his 1998
campaign.

"The mayor has made his position clear and will make his position clear,"
Ken Snyder, Williams' communications director, said.