Howard on the Hill: Stories from the week of December 4, 2009

Frustrations: As you can imagine, I have heard 1001 times the past three years that a staffer’s boss (the Member) may agree with repealing at least marijuana prohibition but such a vote remains “too risky.” I burn a lot of mental energy when I do NOT scream, “tell the Senator to do what is right and best for his state & country.” AKA* find some courage.

As one Senate staffer said today, ‘your issue is gaining ground, especially marijuana.’ This beats where we were just a year or two ago.

Hi, I am the Senator’s Chief Legal Counsel: The past 3 years with this very senior Dem office who has a place on the Senate’s Crime and Drugs subcommittee, I had met with a legislative aide. Today I graduated to a direct 30 minute conversation with his chief counsel & two of his aides. I had never met with three staffers at once before. Small steps.

Webb bill update:  Yesterday I attended the ‘mark up’ for the bill. This is when the Senators vote to move a bill out of the original sub-committee. For the fourth time they ran out of time before it came up. Stay tuned. On a positive note in my meeting above, the chief counsel said his side was very united against the Grassley Amendment (which would prohibit a discussion on drug prohibition). He stated with great certainty that Grassley would fail. Cross your fingers/hold your thumbs.

*AKA = also known as