President Signs Omnibus Bill Including Major Civil Liberties Policy Advances For Washington, D.C.

[ProSense]

President Signs Omnibus Bill Including Major Civil Liberties Policy Advances For Washington, D.C.

December 16, 2009

Bill Lifts 20-Year Ban On DC Abortion Funding, Ends Discriminatory School Voucher Program And Defunds Abstinence-Only Sex Education Programs

WASHINGTON – President Obama today signed into law the Fiscal Year 2010 Omnibus Appropriations bill, legislation that includes several positive civil liberties provisions for the District of Columbia including removal of a ban on financial aid for low-income women to receive abortions, expanded benefits for domestic partnerships and an end to D.C.’s discriminatory school voucher program. The omnibus bill includes several major appropriations bills: Labor, Health and Human Services, Financial Services and State and Foreign Operations. The American Civil Liberties Union hailed the omnibus bill as a huge step forward for civil liberties in the District of Columbia.

The passage of the Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations bill finally ends funding for the failed Community Based Abstinence Education program and instead directs significant resources into medically accurate, evidence-based teen pregnancy prevention programs. The Labor, Health and Human Services bill lifts a ban on federal funds for needle-exchange programs – which are crucial to public health and greatly reduce the spread of disease – across the country. The bill also legalizes the use of medical marijuana in D.C. by removing a federal ban on a referendum that was passed by an overwhelming majority of District voters in the 1990s.

“District of Columbia residents have a lot to be thankful for with the signing of this law,” said Michael Macleod-Ball, Acting Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. “These significant and welcome changes to D.C. law will help to bring the District’s education program and drug and reproductive policies in line with the majority of the country and Constitution. We are especially encouraged to see Congress and the president reject abstinence-only education which censors information, promotes gender stereotypes, marginalizes gay and lesbian youth and jeopardizes the well-being of young people. We hope that the rest of the country will follow suit.”

The ACLU has long sought an end to the D.C. abortion ban, arguing that the District of Columbia ought to have the right, like other states, to use its own local, non-federal revenue to provide abortion care to its low-income residents. The ACLU has also made the elimination of abstinence-only-until-marriage funding a priority and was pleased to see the provision included in the Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations bill. Unfortunately, another provision included in the FY2010 Omnibus Appropriations bill preserves other abortion bans and fails to codify the global gag rule rescission that was offered by Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and adopted by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

“District of Columbia residents and their elected representatives can finally decide how to meet the needs of poor women in their communities,” said Vania Leveille, ACLU Legislative Counsel. “For 20-years, non-resident members of Congress have imposed their own ideology, morality or religious beliefs on the District, utterly disregarding the rights and needs of the local community. After more than a decade, Congress had put teenagers' health above politics and ideology with abstinence-only education. The federal government has an obligation to support programs that provide accurate, age-appropriate information that can protect teenagers' health and ability to achieve in school and beyond."

[ProSense]

1. Swapping Politics for Science on Drug Policy

Swapping Politics for Science on Drug Policy

By Beth Schwartzapfel

December 21, 2009

Policy wonks and deficit hawks weren't the only ones paying attention when President Obama signed the Fiscal Year 2010 Consolidated Appropriations Act last week. HIV activists, public health experts and communities of drug users celebrated--not for what's in the appropriations bill, but for what's not in it: a ban on federal funding for needle exchange programs, which has appeared in the federal budget every year since 1988.

After two decades, this change is a historic achievement. Obama had already missed one opportunity to lift the ban, neglecting to pull it out of his budget in May. Still, that same month former Seattle chief of police Gil Kerlikowske was sworn in as the director of national drug control policy, calling for a new common-sense approach to drug addiction. When the drug czar calls for an end to the war on drugs, it's clearly the start of a new era.

Unlike during the Clinton administration, when there was only mixed support for needle exchange--in 1998, drug czar Barry McCaffrey convinced Bill Clinton to renege on his stated intention to lift the ban--all of the top brass in the Obama administration are on record in favor. Kerlikowske supported Seattle's program of exchanging needles. FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg and CDC Director Tom Frieden both served as New York City Health Commissioner, and both used that position to actively promote needle exchange. Still, drug policy watchers agreed that the president didn't want to force the question of needle exchange on members of Congress. The White House was "concerned about making sure that when Congress deals with the issue, that they can win it," says Harm Reduction Coalition Policy Director Daniel Raymond.

The new provision prohibits federal funding of needle exchanges "in any location that has been determined by the local public health or local law enforcement authorities to be inappropriate for such distribution." But because needle exchanges "have been operating for over twenty years with community support and buy-in already," says Jirair Ratevosian, deputy director of public policy for amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research, this new language essentially ends the ban. Exchanges "already have support from law enforcement agencies; they already have support from public health groups, from local planning committees," Ratevosian noted.

more

[MH1]

19. Funding needle exchange programs is probably considered not "progressive" any more here.

:sarcasm:

Thanks for posting.

[MineralMan]

2. Excellent news, even though it affects only one location.

Now, if we can get Congress to send national legislation like this to President Obama, he can sign that, too.

End DADT.
Repeal DOMA.

If Congress sends it to him, he will sign it. It's time to push our legislators to send some human rights bills to the President, so he can sign them into law.

HCR is just about done, and we can't expect much in the way of large-scale legislation in 2010, since it's an election year. So, lets get some of these smaller, but really important, issues enacted and signed in 2010. Add them as amendments to other bills that must be passed and end all of this crap.

Perhaps if we push Congress to do some of these other things we all want, rather than endlessly bashing President Obama for things beyond his actual control, like getting single-payer through Congress, we can take care of some of the issues that don't inspire nationwide nonsense.

Thank you for your attention.

[ProSense]

3. Exactly. n/t

[ProSense]

4. This needs more exposure. n/t

[FrenchieCat]

5. You posted it at the wrong forum......

this is the forum where folks call the president names in a disrespectul manner,
and feign that it is due "policy" differences.

This is not a place where you post policy actions that actually folks agree with...
that would ruin some folks' rep to be seeing agreeing with a positive post
about a Democratic President on Democratic Underground. Can't have that!

So apart from GDP (which is more Democratically inclined and less Socialist/Green/Anarchist/Contrarian/Libertarian than GD),
You can also post this stuff in the DU Obama forum, cause the 100+ (and growing)
DU Members there (most who don't bother with the GD forum anymore cause it's like
being over at FR) want these kind of OP posted to that we can discuss progress intelligently,
while still maintaining a level of respect that this man, the first Black President,
should get from "Liberals" without even asking. You see at that forum,
we aren't looking so much for balance than for pragmatic discussion,
cause we do lean Left, just not backwards and on our heads.

Please post there ProSense....
no need in good action on policy news being deliberately ignored and going to waste.

[varelse]

7. I think she's posting these articles here with the intent of providing some balance to GD

There's no reason not to cross-post positive news about the Obama administration here, even if it is already posted in more pro-administration sections of the forum.

Edited: I should have remembered Prosense is a "she" not a "he".

[FrenchieCat]

9. Certainly......

but you see how many response this got, right?

ProSense's work is to good to be wasted on closed minded
destroying everything in their path so-called "liberals".

[varelse]

10. It doesn't take that much extra effort to cross-post

I suspect that threads posted in General Discussion are more likely to be read than those in the sub-forums. What Prosense has been doing (posting multiple positive or pro-admin threads in GD) seems like a very good tactical move to me.

Even negative responses can boost exposure and give more visibility to the thread.

Now, if someone were working this hard and only posting in GD, advising them to cross-post in dedicated subforums like the Obama forum is very appropriate. But I don't see posting the threads in GD as wasted effort.

[FrenchieCat]

11. I was being cynical.....

in reality, you are absolutely correct! :)

[varelse]

14. Well at least our subthread discussion has kicked the thread a few times

Defending the administration's policies on DU will be an uphill battle from here on out - it really does not matter what Obama does now, there will be dissatisfaction and criticism, and as we already know, anger and dissappointment are far more likely to be expressed than pride and satisfaction.

In past years, the "powers that be" were the Republicans, a legitimate target for scorn, abuse, and resentment, so this natural tendency to focus on the negative actually pulled DU members together. Now, of course, it is polarizing us and leading to real-time enmity between long standing members of this online community.

For the record, I'm not a fervent supporter of Obama and I am personally very critical of his record to date. But if those in support of his policies and his decisions find themselves intimidated into silence or relegated to the sidelines (ie the subforums), the discussion will be greatly devalued and (imo) the forum will lose relevance.

[FrenchieCat]

15. I find the relevance already gone....

when all that is offered are complaints, and any solutions included (which is rare)
is either impossible, irresponsible, or treacherous to the real bottomline cause,
it becomes uninteresting to read a bunch of folks piling it on, calling names,
basically denigrating our First Black President before his first year is even out.
time and time again, just because they can.

It's like the Kool Kids took over, and bullied everyone else off the playground.
Sad that I have to compare it to an elementary school, but so it is.

[Hannah Bell]

21. it's not folks like me saying single payer is impossible, unrealistic. etc.

nor folks like me saying fdr-style progressive policies aren't "pragmatic".

nor are folks like me the "kool kids". cause if you'll notice, folks like me aren't getting diddly.

[ProSense]

16. Thanks. n/t

[Forkboy]

6. All good news.

K&R

[Political Heretic]

8. Very good news.

[laughingliberal]

12. +1 nt

[AuntPatsy]

13. K & R

[varelse]

17. Recommended

Because it is nice to see positive news about our elected officials once in a while :0

[tandot]

18. K & R

[nofurylike]

20. k&r. thank you again, ProSense!! excellent! nt

[LiberalAndProud]

22. Kudos to Congress and to Obama.

Let me savor this moment. This is nice.

[Solly Mack]

23. K&R