Congressional Committee Votes To Repeal Marijuana Expungements Law In Washington, D.C.

A GOP-controlled congressional committee has approved a bill to repeal a
Washington, D.C. law expanding expungements for marijuana possession.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, chaired by Rep. James
Comer (R-KY), voted on Wednesday to approve the legislation—one in a series
of proposals the panel advanced targeting a variety of local D.C. policies.

The cannabis expungement policy is part of the Second Chance Amendment Act,
a District law passed in 2022 that took effect the next year.

Under the law, the District’s judiciary was mandated to automatically
expunge marijuana possession records for offenses that took place before
D.C. enacted a limited cannabis legalization law in 2014.

*Heres’s the key text of the D.C. law that the congressional bill would
repeal:*

“The Court shall order automatic expungement of all criminal records and
court proceedings related only to citations, arrests, charges, or
convictions for the commission of a criminal offense that has subsequently
been decriminalized, legalized, or held to be unconstitutional by the Court
of Appeals for the District of Columbia or the Supreme Court of the United
States, or records related only to simple possession for any quantity of
marijuana in violation of § 48-904.01(d)(1) before February 15, 2015…”

“The Second Chance Amendment Act expanded expungement and record sealing
for more individuals, as well as expanded automatic expungement for certain
crimes,” Comer said ahead of Wednesday’s vote. “Collectively, these D.C.
laws have created an environment where convicted criminals in the district
are not held fully accountable for their crimes.”

He also offered an amendment, which was adopted, that he said “fixes a
legal reference in the bill and adds clarity that the effects of the bill’s
repeals will apply prospectively.” The amended legislation then advanced on
a vote of 24-20.

Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), called the legislation “paternalistic”
and said that “the over 700,000 D.C. residents, the majority of whom Black
and brown, are capable and worthy of governing themselves.”

Advocates have already been frustrated with congressional interference with
the District’s cannabis laws—particularly the annual renewal of an
appropriations rider from Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) barring D.C. from using
its local tax dollars to implement a system of regulated recreational
marijuana sales.

While Comer oversaw the repeal bill vote, he previously signaled that he’d
be open to revisiting the rider. Asked about the possibility of lifting
restrictions on D.C. legal cannabis sales, he said in late 2023 “if that’s
what Washington D.C. wants, yeah.”

Last week, the House Appropriations Committee again advanced the underlying
spending bill with the rider kept intact.


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Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) has criticized appropriators for putting
forward a bill that restricts the District’s autonomy in a number of ways,
including the rider to “prohibit the use of funds to commercialize
recreational marijuana.”

“I am outraged at the number and scope of anti-D.C. home rule riders in the
bill released today,” Norton said when the measure cleared subcommittee in
July.

The congresswoman said in May that she would again again push her
colleagues to join her in an effort to remove the cannabis language.

“As Congress works on the fiscal year 2026 appropriation bill, I will
continue to fight to remove this rider,” she said, while referencing a
statement from the White House that called the District’s move to enact
local marijuana reform an example of a “failed” policy that “opened the
door to disorder.”

Trump’s budget request that he released in June similarly contained the
Harris rider preventing marijuana sales in D.C., despite voters in the
jurisdiction voting to approve legalization in 2014. Former President Joe
Biden also repeatedly requested the continuation of the D.C. cannabis rider
in budget proposals during his time in office.

While D.C. hasn’t been able to use its local funds to implement a system of
regulated recreational cannabis sales over the last decade, local officials
have taken steps to expand the city’s existing medical marijuana program as
a workaround.

The post Congressional Committee Votes To Repeal Marijuana Expungements Law
In Washington, D.C. appeared first on Marijuana Moment.