Pubdate: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 Source: Associated Press Copyright: 1999 Associated Press Author: Jennifer Andes, Associated Press 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. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake