The Preserving Welfare for Needs Not Weed Act () is a bill that would prevent the use of electronic benefit transfer cards in businesses that sell

marijuana Cannabis, also known as marijuana among other names, is a psychoactive drug from the cannabis plant. Native to Central or South Asia, the cannabis plant has been used as a drug for both recreational and entheogenic purposes and in various tra ...

. The bill was introduced into the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the Lower house, lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the United States Senate, Senate being ...

during the

113th United States Congress The 113th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, from January 3, 2013, to January 3, 2015, during the fifth and sixth years of Presidency of Barack Obama, Barack Obama's presiden ...

Background

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

and

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

both allow residents to buy marijuana legally. Existing law bans the use of welfare funds at strip clubs, liquor stores, and casinos.

Provisions of the bill

''This summary is based largely on the summary provided by the

Congressional Research Service The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a public policy research institute of the United States Congress. Operating within the Library of Congress, it works primarily and directly for members of Congress and their committees and staff on a c ...

, a

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

source.'' The Preserving Welfare for Needs Not Weed Act would amend part A (

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF ) is a federal assistance program of the United States. It began on July 1, 1997, and succeeded the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program, providing cash assistance to indigent Ame ...

) (TANF) of title IV of the

Social Security Act The Social Security Act of 1935 is a law enacted by the 74th United States Congress and signed into law by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The law created the Social Security program as well as insurance against unemployment. The law was pa ...

(SSA) to require a state receiving a TANF grant to maintain policies and practices necessary to prevent assistance under the TANF program from being used in any electronic benefit transfer (via a card) at any establishment that offers

for sale.

Procedural history

The Preserving Welfare for Needs Not Weed Act was introduced into the

on March 4, 2014 by Rep. David G. Reichert (R, WA-8). The bill was referred to the

United States House Committee on Ways and Means The Committee on Ways and Means is the chief tax-writing committee of the United States House of Representatives. The committee has jurisdiction over all taxation, tariffs, and other revenue-raising measures, as well as a number of other program ...

. On September 16, 2014, the House voted in a

voice vote In parliamentary procedure, a voice vote (from the Latin ''viva voce'', meaning "live voice") or acclamation is a voting method in deliberative assemblies (such as legislatures) in which a group vote is taken on a topic or motion by responding vo ...

to pass the bill. The 2018 JOBS bill included a “Preserving Welfare for Needs not Weed” provision.

Debate and discussion

An article on the passage of the bill that was published by ''

ThinkProgress ''ThinkProgress'' was an American progressive news website that was active from 2005 to 2019. It was a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund (CAP Action), a progressive public policy research and advocacy organization. Founde ...

'' accused the bill of "stigmatizing welfare recipients as druggies." The article described several studies into the drug usage of people on welfare, all of them finding that people on welfare use illegal drugs at a lower rate than the general population.

References

External links