Marijuana-related legislation pending in the United States Congress

(as of September 25, 1995)

Although the following chart is self-explanatory, a few things are worth mentioning:

• The many bills introduced by U.S. Representative Gerald Solomon (R-NY), the most outspoken prohibitionist in Congress, have not received any additional co-sponsors since the report in the June 1995 issue of Marijuana Policy Report.
• It is interesting to note that some of the co-sponsors of H.R. 1853, a prohibitionist bill, are liberals. The seven co-sponsors are: Rep. James Hansen (R-UT), Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA), Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY), Rep. John LaFalce (D-NY), Rep. Mel Reynolds (D-IL), Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY), Rep. George Nethercutt (R-WA).
• Although H.R. 1916 ' the only pending legislation that the MPP supports ' currently has no co-sponsors, Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL) introduced similar legislation two years ago which acquired 62 co-sponsors before dying at the end of the last Congress (December 1994). Forfeiture reform is expected to remain a low-priority issue until the House Judiciary Committee has time to address it, probably in mid-1996.
• S. 78 (heroin law reform) and H.R. 1264 (crack-cocaine law reform) have been included because if these controversial issues are on the table, marijuana law reform may not seem so radical by comparison. (Crack-cocaine reform has come to the fore because of apparent racially disparate sentencing practices.) The 11 co-sponsors of H.R. 1264 are: Rep. Eva Clayton (D-NC), Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-PA), Rep. Jose Serrano (D-NY), Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL), Rep. Earl Hilliard (D-AL), Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-MD).
• H.R. 2259 has been included because of its relevance to the annual federal sentencing guidelines amendment cycle. H.R. 2259 was introduced on September 6, marked up and approved by a 7-3 vote by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime on September 7, and marked up and approved by a voice vote by the House Judiciary Committee on September 12. This legislation would reject two of the U.S. Sentencing Commission's amendments to the federal sentencing guidelines. (Note: H.R. 2063 and H.R. 2073, which were introduced in July, would also have rejected these two amendments.) It is important to note that no members of Congress have introduced legislation that would reject the commission's marijuana-related amendments.
• The Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings on S. 3, the primary Senate crime bill, on February 14, March 7, March 28, and July 27. (The House already passed six smaller crime bills in February.) S. 3 is co-sponsored by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC), Sen. Alan Simpson (R-WY), Sen. Phil Gramm (R-TX), Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), Sen. Spencer Abraham (R-MI), Sen. Mike DeWine (R-OH), Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Sen. Robert Smith (R-NH), Sen. Alfonse D'Amato (R-NY), Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS), and Sen. John Warner (R-VA).
• The Senate Judiciary Committee also held hearings on S. 38, a similar but smaller Senate crime bill, on February 14 and July 27. The co-sponsors of S. 38 are the same as those co-sponsoring S. 3, except for Senators DeWine and Smith, and with the addition of Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS), Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), Sen. Don Nickles (R-OK), and Sen. John Ashcroft (R-MO).

The U.S. House of Representatives

Bill # / Date Introduced	Introduced by — # of Co-sponsors	Pending in House Committee	Pending in Subcommittee	Description / MPP's Position: (Support / Oppose / Neutral)
H.R. 134 / 1/4/95	Rep. Gerald Solomon (R-NY) — 2	Economic and Educational Opportunities	Postsecondary Education, Training and Life-Long Learning	To suspend federal education benefits to individuals convicted of drug offenses. (Even a first offense for possession of a joint would elicit a one-year ineligibility period. A third offense would elicit permanent ineligibility.) / O
H.R. 135 / 1/4/95	Rep. Gerald Solomon (R-NY) — 4	Government Reform and Oversight	Human Resources and Intergovernmental Relations	To prohibit federally sponsored research pertaining to the legalization of drugs. / O
H.R. 136 / 1/4/95	Rep. Gerald Solomon (R-NY) — 4	Government Reform and Oversight	Government Management, Information and Technology	To require random drug testing within the executive branch of the federal government. / O
H.R. 138 / 1/4/95	Rep. Gerald Solomon (R-NY) — 3	Judiciary	Crime	To amend the Controlled Substances Act to require that courts, upon criminal conviction under that Act, notify the employer of the convicted person. (This includes possessing a single joint for personal use!) / O
H.R. 141 / 1/4/95	Rep. Gerald Solomon (R-NY) — 5	Judiciary	Crime	To amend the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 to eliminate the discretion of the court in connection with the denial of certain federal benefits upon conviction of certain drug offenses. / O
H.R. 143 / 1/4/95	Rep. Gerald Solomon (R-NY) — 3	Government Reform and Oversight	Civil Service	To require the pre-employment drug testing of applicants for federal employment. / O
H.R. 147 / 1/4/95	Rep. Gerald Solomon (R-NY) — 0	Judiciary	Crime	To expand the death penalty for drug "kingpins." (This would effectively lower the minimum quantity of marijuana for which a person may be executed — from 60,000 plants or kilograms to 30,000 plants or kilograms.) / O
H.R. 148 / 1/4/95	Rep. Gerald Solomon (R-NY) — 0	House Oversight	n/a	To require random drug testing of federal legislative branch officers and employees. / O
H.R. 153 / 1/4/95	Rep. Gerald Solomon (R-NY) — 0	Commerce	Health and Environment	To amend the Public Health Service Act to establish federal standards to ensure quality assurance of drug testing programs. / O
H.R. 160 / 1/4/95	Rep. Gerald Solomon (R-NY) — 0	Judiciary	Courts and Intellectual Property	To require random drug testing of federal judicial branch officers and employees. / O
H.R. 1453 / 4/6/95	Rep. Gerald Solomon (R-NY) — 0	Ways and Means	n/a	To amend the Internal Revenue Code to deny tax-exempt status to organizations that promote the legalization of certain drugs. / O
H.R. 185 / 1/4/95	Rep. Cardiss Collins (D-IL) — 0	Commerce	Telecommunications and Finance	To establish procedures for the discontinuance of mobile radio services to persons engaged in drug trafficking. / N
H.R. 320 / 1/4/95	Rep. Bill McCollum (R-FL) — 0	Judiciary	Crime	To provide civil and criminal forfeitures for certain offenses. / O
H.R. 437 / 1/9/95	Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) — 0	Judiciary	Crime	To modify the limitation on mandatory minimum sentences. (The "safety valve," which allows certain low-level nonviolent offenders to avoid mandatory minimums, would only apply to people age 55 or older!) / O
H.R. 791 / 2/2/95	Rep. Wayne Allard (R-CO) — 50	Ways and Means	Human Resources	To deny supplemental security income benefits by reason of disability based on addiction to alcohol or drugs. / N
H.R. 825 / 2/3/95	Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) — 0	Commerce	Health and Environment	To allow taxpayers to designate $1 of the income tax ... for purposes of rehabilitation and treatment in combating the war on drugs. / N
H.R. 920 / 2/13/95	Rep. Harold Volkmer (D-MO) — 9	Judiciary	Crime	To replace the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. (Essentially, this would eliminate the few good elements of last year's crime act while keeping most of the bad; moreover, new harmful provisions would be added.) / O
H.R. 1292 / 3/22/95	Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL) — 0	Judiciary	Immigrations and Claims	To revise, codify, and enact ... laws related to aliens and nationality. (This enormous bill would, among other things, deny a visa to an alien convicted of any "controlled substance" violation anywhere in the world.) / O
H.R. 1321 / 3/24/95	Rep. Charles Schumer (D-NY) — 0	Judiciary	Crime	To prevent handgun violence and illegal commerce in firearms. (This would increase the mandatory minimums for possessing a gun during "drug trafficking crimes," including personal-use marijuana cultivation, as described in the February Marijuana Policy Report.) / O
H.R. 1488 / 4/7/95	Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA) — 60	Judiciary	Crime	To increase penalties for armed violent criminals. (This would, in part, further increase penalties for marijuana cultivators who own guns.) / O
H.R. 1916 / 6/22/95	Rep. Henry Hyde (R-IL) — 0	Judiciary AND Ways and Means	Crime AND Trade*	"Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 1995"; to reform civil forfeiture laws on the federal level. / S
H.R. 1853 / 6/15/95	Rep. Martin Meehan (D-MA) — 7	Commerce	Health and Environment	To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to require the reduction and eventual elimination of nicotine in tobacco products. / N
H.R. 1264 / 3/16/95	Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) — 11	Judiciary AND Commerce	Crime AND Health and Environment*	To eliminate mandatory minimum penalties for certain crack cocaine offenses. / N
H.R. 2259 / 9/6/95	Rep. Bill McCollum (R-FL) — 0	**	**	To reject the U.S. Sentencing Commission's amendments to the federal sentencing guidelines relating to: (1) equalization of crack and cocaine powder quantities for trafficking and possession offenses and (2) money laundering. / N

• * H.R. 1916 and H.R. 1264 are simultaneously pending in two House subcommittees.
• ** Approved by Judiciary Committee; vote on House floor is pending.

The U.S. Senate

Bill # / Date Introduced	Introduced by — # of Co-sponsors	Pending Senate Committee	Description / MPP's Position: (Support / Oppose / Neutral)
S. 3 / 1/4/95	Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS) — 12	Judiciary Committee	"Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Improvement Act of 1995" / O
S. 38 / 1/4/95	Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) — 13	Judiciary Committee	"Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Amendments Act of 1995" / O
S. 78 / 1/4/95	Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI) — 0	Committee on Labor and Human Resources	To allow doctors to prescribe heroin to terminal patients to control severe pain. / N
S. 438 / 2/16/95	Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) — 0	Judiciary Committee	To change criminal laws, and for other purposes. (This would, in part, further increase penalties for "guns-and-drugs" crimes.) / O