HOUSE PASSES $4.65 BILLION DC BUDGET

WASHINGTON (AP) The House approved a $4.65 billion budget Thursday for the
nation's capital after defeating attempts to legalize medical marijuana and
allow the city to spend its money to sue for voting rights in Congress.

The budget for fiscal 2000 contains $453 million in federal spending, and
is about a 3 percent larger than the current fiscal year's $4.52 billion
budget. The vote was 333-92.

A version passed by the Senate on July 1 does not contain several
controversial measures in the House bill. The differing versions must be
reconciled in a conference between the two chambers.

The House bill would prohibit the city government from enacting medical
marijuana legislation and forbid the use of district funds to lobby
Congress for full voting rights there. District funds also could not be
used to support a needle-sharing program to combat AIDS among drug-users.

Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., chairman of the District of Columbia
subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, said the bill received
''strong bipartisan support.'' He criticized the Clinton Administration for
threatening a possible veto over the needle-exchange issue.

Mayor Anthony Williams said he was disappointed with some amendments but
called the rejection of one that would prohibit adoptions by unmarried
couples a ''silver lining.''

By voice vote, the House passed an amendment by Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., that
prohibits terminally ill patients from using marijuana to ease their pain.

Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., called the initiative ''a backdoor way to
legalize marijuana'' and said it would be an ''abomination'' to legalize
marijuana in the nation's capital. Supporters accused members of
interfering with the district's democratic process.

A provision Barr added to last year's budget prohibits votes from a Nov. 3
referendum on a medical marijuana initiative from being counted. They can
be counted at the end of the fiscal year, but the new amendment prohibits
the use of medical marijuana no matter which way the count goes.

An amendment by D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton to permit the district
to use its own funds to sue for the right to be represented in
congressional voting failed in a 214-214 vote for a lack of majority.