D.C. HOME RULE SCORES VICTORIES HOUSE PANEL APPROVES BALLOT, NEEDLE MEASURES

The District government would be able to count ballots from last year's
referendum on legalizing marijuana for certain medical purposes and to
spend city money on a needle exchange program under a plan endorsed
yesterday by the House Appropriations Committee.

The two victories for home rule advocates came just before the House panel
approved the District's proposed $4.7 billion spending plan for fiscal
2000, including the $300 million, five-year package of tax cuts agreed to
by city officials.

"We got two important pro-democracy votes here," said Del. Eleanor Holmes
Norton (D-D.C.), who has long expressed frustration with Capitol Hill
Republicans who in recent years have overridden the wishes of city officials.

Yesterday's debate focused on "riders," amendments that various members of
Congress had attached to the D.C. bill to prohibit the city from spending
money on controversial programs -- and to use the District's budget process
to make political statements.

Members of the House panel made clear yesterday that they were not
advocating the legalization of marijuana in the District, but several
Republicans broke with their party leaders and agreed with Democrats that
Congress should no longer prohibit the city from even counting the ballots
from the 1998 referendum.

More than 110 communities in 30 states use needle exchange programs to try
to slow the spread of HIV among addicts, but the District -- which has the
nation's highest rate of new HIV infections -- suspended funding for its
two-year-old program last year after Republicans in Congress inserted
language in the city budget prohibiting any spending on such an effort. The
GOP lawmakers said they feared that needle exchange programs encourage drug
use.

Democrats who have fought to remove the medical-marijuana and
needle-exchange riders from the D.C. budget said they still could lose this
year when the budget goes to the full House for final approval.

But yesterday's votes gave hope to home rule advocates and those who
consider needle-exchange programs a key to curbing the spread of HIV.

"This is great news for AIDS prevention," said D.C. Council member Jim
Graham (D-Ward 1), a former director of the Whitman-Walker Clinic, an AIDS
prevention and treatment organization. "If this holds, we can repair the
crippling damage that was done last year."

The Senate already has passed a version of the D.C. budget that does not
include bans on needle exchanges and the counting of ballots from the
marijuana referendum.

The referendum calls for the city to legalize the possession, use and
cultivation of marijuana if recommended by a physician for a serious
illness. If D.C. voters approved the referendum, Congress would have the
power to reject the new law.

The budget approved by the House committee includes about $95 million in
new initiatives, the largest piece of which would be used to expand drug
treatment and testing for the 30,000 people on parole, on probation or
awaiting trial. An additional $17 million would go for tuition support for
D.C. youths to attend out-of-state colleges, allowing them to pay in-state
tuition rates.

Rep. Ernest J. Istook Jr. (R-Okla.) argued that it would make no sense for
Congress to give the District extra money to fight drug abuse while
allowing it to spend local funds to distribute clean needles to addicts.

But Reps. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), Julian C. Dixon (D-Calif.), Nancy
Pelosi (D-Calif.) and others argued that although Congress has the right to
prohibit the use of federal funds for the needle exchange, it should not
prevent the city from using its dollars on such an effort.

They cited D.C. statistics indicating that AIDS is the leading cause of
death for city residents ages 30 to 44, an AIDS death rate seven times the
national average.

Six Republicans ultimately agreed with the Democrats, and the panel voted
32 to 23 to prohibit only the use of federal funds for a D.C. needle
exchange program.

"This is not about drug use," said Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.). "It is a
matter of preventing the transmission of an illness and disease through
dirty needles."

The debate over the medical marijuana referendum followed similar lines.
Democrats and a few Republicans argued that the city should be able to
count a vote taken by its residents, regardless of the subject.

"What we are talking about here," said Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham
(R-Calif.), "is the constitutional right to speak out and express an opinion."

Meanwhile, Moran tried unsuccessfully to strike language from the budget
that prohibits the city from spending local money on abortions, on health
care for domestic partners and for lawyers to pursue a court case seeking
expanded voting rights for D.C. residents.