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When Congress unveiled the $1.1 trillion government spending bill this morning, its contents proved to be a mixed bag for the District. As reported by WAMU, the legislation includes a provision that continues to make it illegal for D.C.'s government to spend any money to implement Initiative 71, which legalized marijuana in the District. D.C. residents approved of the measure at the ballot box by a two-to-one margin.

PRESS RELEASE

A record high number of District residents want to see D.C. become a state, according to a new Washington Post poll. Nearly 3 in 4 residents say they are upset that the District has no voting representation in Congress, and about half of the city’s residents say they are “very upset.” All D.C. laws and budgets are subject to congressional approval, a process that has thwarted the passage of locally approved laws, including legislation governing reproductive rights and the use of marijuana.

As Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., adjusts to his new role in the House, he also takes on a little-recognized responsibility: oversight of the District of Columbia.

"Let them have gun laws! Let them have weed! Let them decide the things that they need!"

Outgoing House Speaker John Boehner has one swan song that’s guaranteed to be a hit among even his most bitter Republican critics: picking a fight with the president over private school vouchers. The House is expected to pass a bill extending the life of Washington’s school voucher program Wednesday, setting up an outsized fight with the White House over a small, $45 million program that allows students from low-income families in the nation’s capital to attend private schools on the taxpayer dime.

The District’s top lawyer is asking a federal appeals court to reconsider last month’s decision overturning some of the city’s strict gun-registration laws. Attorney General Karl A. Racine this week asked the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for D.C. to rehear a panel decision that would eliminate some provisions of the city’s “carefully crafted firearm-registration system, which promotes critical public safety interests in the unique jurisdiction that is the nation’s capital.”

Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District’s non-voting delegate in Congress, is postponing a briefing at which she planned to convene to show House staffers a clip from HBO’s Last Week Tonight highlighting the District’s lack of self-determination so that she can deal with House Republicans’ latest attempt to meddle in DC’s local affairs.

Taking questions from the crowd at a bipartisan event in New Hampshire on Monday, Republican presidential hopeful Chris Christie gave his thoughts on D.C. statehood and voting rights: Mainly, that he hasn’t given it much thought at all.