The Daily Beast
Biden White House sandbag workers, dozens for marijuana use
Photo Illustration by Sarah Rogers / The Daily Beast / Getty PhotosDozens of young White House employees were suspended, asked to resign or placed on a remote work program due to previous marijuana use, frustrating employees who were satisfied with the government’s initial nominations Biden said recreational use of cannabis would not immediately disqualify potential employees, according to three people familiar with the situation. The policy even affected officials whose use of marijuana was exclusive to one of the 14 states – and the District of Columbia – where cannabis is legal. Sources familiar with the matter also said that several young employees were put on probation or canned because they revealed previous marijuana use in an official document they filled out as part of the long background check for a job at the Biden White House. In some cases, officials were informed informally by transition chiefs before formally joining the government that they would likely neglect some previous marijuana use, only to be later asked to resign. “There were individual calls to individually affected employees – rather, ex-employees,” a former policy-affected White House official told The Daily Beast. “I was asked to resign.” “Nothing was explained” in the calls, they added, conducted by the White House Director of Management and Administration, Anne Filipic. “Policies were never explained, the limit for what was excusable and what was inexcusable was never explained.” In February, NBC News reported that the White House intended – for some candidates – to waive the requirement that all potential nominees in the president’s Executive Office be able to obtain “top secret” authorization. Rules on past marijuana use and eligibility for release vary, depending on the agency: for the FBI, an applicant cannot have used marijuana in the past three years; at the NSA, it’s just one. The White House, however, largely gives the letters, and officials at the time told NBC News that as long as the previous use was “limited” and the candidate was not seeking a position requiring security clearance, the previous use can be excused. . Asked about the policy and its effect on administration personnel, a White House spokesman contested the number of affected officials, but said the Biden administration was “committed to bringing the best people to the government, especially the young people whose commitment with public service can deepen these positions, “and noted that the White House’s approach to past marijuana use is much more flexible than previous administrations.” The White House policy will maintain the highest absolute standards of service in the government that the president expects his administration, while recognizing the reality that state and local marijuana laws have changed significantly across the country in recent years, “added the spokesman.” This decision was made after intensive consultation with security officials and effectively protect our national security while modernizing policies to ensure that talented and well-qualified candidates limited use of marijuana are not prevented from serving the American people. ” The drug history, except for previous convictions for possession, is largely based on the honor system, as well as supplementary interviews with family and friends by the FBI – although lying on the 136-page SF-86 form is a crime and effectively prohibits a candidate from working. for a federal agency. Over the years, some rules have been relaxed or totally eliminated (the existence of nude photos of a candidate is no longer automatically disqualifying, for example). Some of these layoffs, probation and remote work commitments may have was potentially the result of inconsistencies that arose during the background check process, in which an employee could, for example, have misinformed the last time they used marijuana. The effect of the policy, however, would be the same: the White House of Biden would punish several employees for violating cannabis use limits in the past that potential employees were unaware of. Previous drug use can pose problems in obtaining a security clearance title. Although practices across the federal government vary, in general agencies can consider the type, frequency and timeliness of drug use as mitigating factors when granting an authorization. Past marijuana smoking will not prevent some candidates for White House positions The Biden administration has attempted to modernize the White House’s personal policy with regard to past marijuana use, which has disproportionately affected younger nominees and those from states where the marijuana has been decriminalized or legalized. (Marijuana, of course, remains illegal in the eyes of the federal government.) The number of permissible instances of past marijuana use has increased in the Trump and Obama governments – a reflection of widespread drug use – and the White House has approved limited exemptions for candidates whose positions do not require security clearance. These officials, like all White House officials, must pledge not to use marijuana while serving in the federal government and must undergo random drug tests. The president, however, remains the final authority on who can receive a release, and the chief executive can override the agency’s judgments on eligibility, as President Donald Trump did when he gave his son-in-law Jared Kushner top secret authorization. the objections of the intelligence community and its own lawyer. “I find it absurd that in 2021, marijuana use is still part of a security clearance background check,” said Tommy Vietor, a 2008 veteran of the Obama team who later worked as a spokesman on Thursday. of the National Security Council. “For me, marijuana use is completely irrelevant when you’re trying to decide whether an individual should be trusted with national security information.” In previous administrations, White House officials have also been denied applications or jobs that have started abruptly taken off because of marijuana use. In the early days of the Trump era, several people – some intermediate, some senior – had jobs they had already taken, pulled by White House chiefs after failing urine tests that showed signs of recent marijuana use, according to with a person with knowledge of the subject. Marijuana policy has hindered the nominations of even senior White House officials in previous administrations. Ben Rhodes, a former deputy national security adviser at the Obama White House, wrote in his memoirs that his provisional security clearance was initially denied because of previous marijuana use. Alyssa Mastromonaco, who served as deputy chief of staff for operations in the Obama administration and describes herself as “love for ganj”, wrote in Vice in 2017 that, after filling out her SF-86, “went home and flushed the entire marijuana that I had hidden in my underwear drawer. ”In the end, Mastromonaco was allowed to join the administration, she wrote,“ but I did drug tests randomly once a month for the first year, and regularly thereafter. ” aspiring Biden administration officials whose dream jobs were hampered by an opaque system now feel that their own veracity has been used against them. “The goal is exclusively younger officials and officials from states where it was legal,” the first said the official Read more at The Daily Beast. Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now! Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper into the stories that matter for you. To know more.