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Law360 (April 3, 2020, 7:13 PM EDT ) A congresswoman representing Washington, D.C., called Friday for the next federal COVID-19 relief bill to include a provision lifting a ban on recreational marijuana sales in the district, saying the tax revenue is urgently needed amid the pandemic.
Marijuana possession is legal in D.C., but Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., said lawmakers should scrap a rider attached to spending bills by Republicans that has prohibited the district from allowing retail sales for the past six years.
"At this moment of unparalleled need, D.C. should be able to collect tax revenue from all available sources, like every other jurisdiction, including from recreational marijuana, which is believed to be widely used in the District," Norton said in a statement.
Norton got the rider removed from the 2020 House budget bill, but Senate Republicans reattached it at the urging of the White House, according to a press release from her office. Norton said it's imperative that lawmakers use the next COVID-19 bill to remove the provision.
"It is beyond unreasonable that congressional interference keeps only the district from commercializing recreational marijuana, while all other jurisdictions are free to do so," Norton said. "Bringing the district in line with other jurisdictions would create a critical source of tax revenue in our time of need."
President Donald Trump on March 27 signed a $2 trillion package of relief measures aimed at supporting jobless Americans, boosting business activity and providing resources for health care workers struggling to treat COVID-19. The CARES Act is likely the first of many relief measures as the pandemic rends the global economy with no clear end in sight.
Norton said the bill also shorted D.C. by $750 million by classifying the district as a territory rather than a state, which she said is the norm in spending bills.
"While I am working for a retroactive fix in the next coronavirus bill, it is imperative that Congress also repeal the D.C. recreational marijuana commercialization rider in the next bill to help D.C. shore up its finances," she said.
The D.C. rider is not the only spending provision to draw the ire of cannabis proponents amid the pandemic. A group of 11 senators last month urged members of the Senate budget-writing committee to use an upcoming spending bill unrelated to COVID-19 to lift a provision excluding marijuana businesses from Small Business Administration loans, including those for disaster relief.
--Additional reporting by Stephen Cooper. Editing by Adam LoBelia.
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