Eleanor Holmes Norton: “I want to thank my good friend from New York for yielding and for her work on this rule. Mr. Speaker, A Congress…”

“I want to thank my good friend from New York for yielding and for her work on this rule. Mr. Speaker, A Congress controlled by Members trying to reduce the Federal footprint at every turn ought to be the first to reject two amendments in the Financial Services appropriation, which fly in the face of their own core philosophy. First is the abortion amendment that would keep the District of Columbia from spending its own local funds on abortions for low-income women. {time} 1300 Mr. Speaker, 17 States that are represented in this House spend their own local funds in this way, and we are determined to fight until the district's low-income women have the same reproductive health rights as the women who live in those 17 States. There is a second bill--a second amendment that targets the District of Columbia and its marijuana decriminalization law at the same time that the States are rapidly moving in the same direction. Eighteen of them, before the District even got there, have decriminalized marijuana. Two States have legalized marijuana, 23 States have legalized medical marijuana, and a recent Pew Research poll found that more than half of the American people support marijuana legislation. Mr. Speaker, this amendment that targets the District of Columbia is authored by Representative Andy Harris of Maryland. Maryland is one of the States that has decriminalized marijuana.…”