House Republicans are warning Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser not to move forward with plans to legalize marijuana in the nation’s capital this week — or else they’ll face retribution from Congress.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) said in a letter Tuesday that the city would be violating a spate of federal laws if it went forward with Bowser’s plan to implement the new pro-pot measure Thursday.
“We strongly suggest you reconsider your position,” the two wrote to Bowser — while, in a thinly-veiled suggestion that there would be consequences for ignoring them, pointing to House rules that give Chaffetz’s panel broad investigative authority.
Their warning comes after Bowser had announced that a measure approved by D.C. voters in November allowing Washington residents to possess up to two ounces of pot would take effect Thursday.
The allowance applies only to those over 21. In addition, D.C. residents could grow up to six pot plants in their own yards. Buying and selling pot would still be illegal, as would smoking in public places. But people could transfer up to one ounce to another person — just not for money.
“In November, residents of the District of Columbia voted to legalize small amounts of marijuana by adults for personal, in-home use in the District,” Bowser said in a statement Tuesday. “We will uphold the letter and the spirit of the initiative that was passed last year.”
It’s the latest example of the strain between a heavily Democratic city that is ultimately controlled by a Republican-dominated Congress — which couldn’t stop similar marijuana legalization pushes in Colorado and Washington state, but is trying to use its power of the purse to do so this time.
Chaffetz and Meadows pointed to a provision included in a massive spending bill approved by Congress in December that prohibited Washington from legalizing marijuana, or cutting any drug possession penalties.
Bowser has insisted that the district’s measure was enacted before that December vote. But the two Republicans noted that any bill in Washington can’t become local law until it’s been through a 30-day layover period before Congress. Until that happens, they said, the measure can’t be considered enacted — which in this case means it “was not enacted prior to the language in the continuing resolution preventing it from moving forward.”
“If you decide to move forward tomorrow with the legalization of marijuana in the District, you will be doing so in knowing and willful violation of the law,” Chaffetz and Meadows wrote.
