Pubdate: Thu, 19 May 2016
Source: Fremont Tribune (NE)
Copyright: 2016 Fremont Tribune.
Contact:  http://fremonttribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2512
Authors: Laura Litvan and Steven T. Dennis, Bloomberg News

HOUSE VOTES FOR EASIER VETERANS ACCESS TO MEDICAL MARIJUANA

WASHINGTON - The U.S. House voted to allow Department of Veterans
Affairs doctors to recommend medical marijuana to their patients in
states where it's legal, marking the strongest sign yet that attitudes
in Congress toward the drug are shifting along with public sentiment.

The House took several other emotional votes Thursday, including
approving an amendment that would ban the display of the Confederate
battle flag in veterans' cemeteries and, in a particularly raucous
moment, narrowly defeating another that aimed to protect lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender people from discrimination in federal
contracting.

On the medical marijuana amendment, the 233-189 vote Thursday to bar
an Obama administration gag order on VA doctors is a reversal from a
year ago, when a similar proposal by Earl Blumenauer, an Oregon
Democrat, was narrowly defeated on a 210-213 vote. Two years ago, the
same effort failed 222-195.

Senate appropriators this year included a similar provision in their
version of an annual spending bill governing veterans health programs,
which is under debate on the Senate floor.

Currently, veterans have to hire an outside physician at their own
expense to get such treatment, an "unjustified" hurdle affecting some
veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression
and chronic pain and who might benefit, Blumenauer said.

"We should not be limiting the treatment options available to our
veterans," said Blumenauer, whose home state is among 24, along with
the District of Columbia, that have laws legalizing medical marijuana.

Rep. Charlie Dent, a Pennsylvania Republican, said during floor debate
Wednesday night that he opposes the policy shift, albeit reluctantly.
Dent said that he was "uncomfortable in trying to dictate policy on
marijuana" without guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
and other medical professionals.

Blumenauer retorted that the amendment doesn't dictate anything, but
instead would "simply enable doctors and patients to interact with a
state's legal marijuana systems."

White House spokeswoman Katie Hill declined to comment on the
provision before the vote, but the administration's veto threat on the
Senate bill containing the provision didn't mention it.

The White House's policy on marijuana has been evolving, and President
Barack Obama has previously signed into law bans on enforcement
against state-sanctioned medical marijuana operations. The Justice
Department has also declined to enforce federal marijuana laws in
states that have legalized it for recreational use, like Colorado, but
Obama, who has written about and joked about his own drug use, has not
embraced legalization or rescheduling of the drug.

The amendment is on the House's broader $81.6 billion bill funding
military construction and veterans programs in the fiscal year
starting Oct. 1.

A separate amendment adopted Thursday on a 265-159 vote would prohibit
the large-scale display of Confederate flags in VA-run cemeteries. A
related amendment last year, coming in the wake of a deadly shooting
at an African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina, proved so
awkward for Republicans that it scuttled the entire House debate over
individual spending bills.

This year's proposal was offered by Rep. Jared Huffman, a California
Democrat, who described the flag as a "disrespectful" symbol of hate
that has no place on government property, and especially not on the
grounds of veterans' cemeteries.

"It's past time to end the public promotion of this cruel, racist
legacy of the Confederacy," he said. "Symbols matter."

No one spoke against the amendment during Wednesday's late night
debate.

Democrats led by Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland expressed
outrage on the House floor after several members were allowed to
change their votes quietly after regular time expired to vote on an
amendment protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people
from discrimination from federal contractors.

"How can the vote change when no one came to the well to change their
vote?" asked Hoyer on the floor. The measure was announced as failing,
in a 212-213 vote. But just moments earlier, the electronic tally
displayed 217 votes in favor, and the total could have gone higher.

After the vote, Hoyer, Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and other
Democrats lashed out at House Speaker Paul Ryan for what they said was
a failure to fulfill pledges of transparency in handling House votes
and procedures when he took the gavel last October.

"Evidently Speaker Ryan's promises of regular order mean nothing, when
regular order means a majority of the House standing up to protect
LGBT Americans from bigotry," Pelosi said in a statement. "House
Republicans' outrageous and cowardly actions today utterly expose the
reality of their hateful agenda."

During a later news conference, Ryan offered little about what
happened on the floor regarding the amendment sponsored by Rep. Sean
Maloney, a Democrat from New York.

"I don't even know," he said of what occurred, and whether it was at
leadership's direction.

But when asked about his view of the amendment, Ryan said, "I think
this is federalism. The states should do this. The federal government
shouldn't stick its nose in its business."

One other Democrat, Bill Pascrell of New Jersey, said afterward there
is a difference between "being clever and intelligent." He said
Republicans in this maneuver may have been clever, but that it was not
intelligent in terms of longer-term relations with Democrats across
the aisle.

The White House has threatened to veto the underlying spending bill,
which funds military construction and veterans affairs programs, in
part because it includes restrictions on the administration's ability
to construct an alternative facility to house Guantanamo Bay detainees.
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D