GOP senator wants to fix welfare-for-weed ‘loophole’

A Republican senator plans to introduce legislation to close what he calls a welfare “loophole” after the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed it had “no authority” to prohibit recipients from using their benefit cards at marijuana stores in states where pot is legal.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., released a letter he received over the summer from HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell. In it, the secretary said that while Washington can punish states for letting welfare recipients use benefits at liquor stores and casinos and strip clubs, marijuana stores were...