January 15, 2009
The resolution addressing the U.S. drug policies that El Paso City Council approved unanimously last week, though vetoed and battered, is not dead yet.
U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, is apparently willing to conduct official a hearing in El Paso on issues the resolution raises.
And the original resolution will go back to City Council in two weeks.
Jose Contreras, the chairman of the Border Relations Committee that presented the resolution to city Council last week, said it will go to council for consideration again as originally presented.
“We’re going to request that the City Council help us with this resolution on which we have worked so hard,” said Contreras, who runs an international security consulting company.
But, he said. “The thing I want to be very clear about is that we as a committee are going to request that this addendum not be included in our resolution.”
That is, without the 12 words city Rep. Beto O’Rourke added that led to national coverage and a veto calling for congressional action “supporting an honest open national debate on ending the prohibition on narcotics.”
The resolution was to go on this Tuesday’s agenda but, because of the four hour recess scheduled from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for the presidential inauguration, the committee chose to wait until Jan. 27.
Reyes “doesn't oppose a debate on legalization”
In light of Reyes’ position against the call for a debate on drug legalization, some are baffled by his statements in Wednesday’s Huffington Post, a popular online news outlet, in an article headlined, “El Paso, Texas, Calls On Congress To Debate Drug Legalization: Dems Refuse.” [link]
“Reyes, however, told the Huffington Post that he doesn't oppose a debate on legalization. He only opposed the timing, coming as it did as Obama was meeting with the Mexican president and Congress was debating the stimulus,” the article stated.
It then quoted Reyes directly as saying, "If it's still an issue [after the stimulus passes], I'm not opposed to perhaps even entertaining a hearing," said Reyes. "I can look at that if they want to pursue it."
Reyes’ spokesman Vince Perez today said Reyes was referring to conducting a hearing on the drug-related violence.
He would even consider conducting a congressional hearing on the issue in El Paso, Perez said.
Asked if the article was correct or incorrect in stating that Reyes “doesn’t oppose a debate on legalization,” Perez said what Reyes told the Huffington Post is consistent to what he had said before.
Without disputing the Huffington Post article directly, Perez said the congressman would not entertain a congressional hearing on legalization but only those issues that would come under his committee's responsibility.
To reach David Crowder, write to dcrowder@epmediagroup.com or call (915) 351-0605, ext. 30.