On the recordJuly 14, 2014
I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Chairman, I rise on the provision in this bill that would deny the D.C. Council the right to have a different policy on marijuana than they have had in the past. I can understand politically the other side not wanting the people of D.C. to have Senators and Reps because the likelihood is they would be Democrats, but not to let them have self-rule smacks of colonialism, colonialism that is of another era, colonialism that is of the days of Jim Crow. To not allow D.C. to have the right to pass their own laws and to have the same opportunity to have laboratories of democracy, as Louis Brandeis talked about, is wrong. What it will do is it will not stop teens from doing marijuana, but it will put more teens in jail with a scarlet letter and an expense and maybe prevent them from having the opportunity to get a scholarship, housing, and a job. It is against the wrong side of history for them to stop D.C.'s Council from having the authority and for putting African Americans, who are disproportionately affected, in jail and ruining their lives. I object to what has been included and wish that they would reconsider.
