A key Senate committee has voted to amend an intelligence oversight bill to include a provision preventing agencies from denying security clearances to applicants solely due to their past marijuana use.
The Senate Intelligence Committee unanimously passed the Intelligence Authorization Act on Wednesday after voting 10-7 to adop an amendment proposed by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) to prohibit security clearance denials for applicants to intelligence agencies like CIA and NSA just because they admitted to prior cannabis consumption.
“This bill includes historic bipartisan legislation reforming the country’s broken classification and declassification system,” Wyden said in a press release on Thursday. “The bill also includes my provision to ensure that cannabis use will not disqualify intelligence community applicants from serving their country. It’s a commonsense change to ensure the IC can recruit the most capable people possible. ”
The senator filed a broader amendment to last year’s version of the authorization legislation that would have prevented employment discrimination based on prior or present cannabis use at any federal department, not just those dealing with intelligence.
But the provision was scaled back under a second-degree amendment from the panel’s chairman before being adopted by the committee. And then the reform was ultimately
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