Politics
GOP Senator Threatens To Block Bills To Reopen Government If Hemp THC Ban Moves Forward
A GOP senator says he’s willing to hold up spending legislation to end the ongoing government shutdown if Congress attempts to move forward with a controversial plan to ban hemp products containing THC—though he’s warning there’s a “real danger” he won’t prevail. As such, he argues that it’s imperative for the industry make its voice heard on Capitol Hill over the coming days.
At a virtual event hosted by Hemp Industry & Farmers of America (HIFA) on Tuesday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) gave a status update on efforts to keep the proposed hemp ban out of appropriations legislation that’s being negotiated by House and Senate lawmakers. He stressed that “we’re at crunch time” to prevent the prohibition from being enacted.
With much of the executive branch still shut down after weeks of contention on Capitol Hill over unrelated issues, Paul said he remains “amenable” to blocking any measure to end the stalemate without assurances that the hemp market won’t be recriminalized under plans championed by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD).
“I’ve also told them—and I think they believe me—that we can do this the easy way or the hard way. The easy way is I give my consent, and the hard way is I don’t,” the senator said, adding that he’s put forward alternative language to require a study and report on state regulatory models for hemp that could inform future revisions to the federal law.
“We think they should study what’s going on in the states,” he said.
However, it remains uncertain whether leadership or other lawmakers negotiating the appropriations legislation will go along with that plan instead of the ban.
“If they are pressed for time and they want to speed up time, they might give me what I want, which is a report, non-binding, and we read, we discuss the issue over the next several years to find out what’s acceptable,” Paul said. “If they don’t care and they just roll over me, which is a possibility, they’re essentially going to ban hemp.”
Specifically, he said the opposition’s proposal would set the THC limit for hemp “so low that there won’t be any hemp products probably left to be sold.” He also made the case that, under the language he’s reviewed from McConnell and Harris, it’s possible that even hemp plants grown for industrial purposes could get caught up in the prohibition, forcing farmers to be “re-hybridized to meet a new standard.”
“I think most of the hemp that is sold would not meet this standard. But, then again, is there going to be money around for people to redo the hemp plants? What’s going to need to be done if the hemp products are illegal?” he said.
Paul also noted that, while the hemp ban language was removed on the Senate floor prior to passage of a combined package of three appropriations bills into a minibus that’s now a focus of bicameral negotiations, the House version that still contains the hemp ban language has only advanced out of committee in the chamber.
“Technically, they shouldn’t be allowed to put hemp language in at all,” he said. “But if you know anything about Washington, breaking the rules or making up the rules as we go is what often happens. So even though these people have acknowledged to me they shouldn’t do this—that it’s against the rules—they’re going to do it anyway. So this is what we’ve been debating.”
The senator repeatedly emphasized to stakeholders and supporters the importance of directly contacting committee leadership, their congressional representatives and particularly McConnell to drive home the point that the proposed ban would jeopardize their jobs and livelihoods,
“Senator McConnell and Representative Harris are the two people that are driving this issue,” he said. “They are driving the numbers, that will eliminate the industry. Most of the other people I’ve talked to are you happy to take the report” Paul proposed in his amendment.
“Everybody else I’ve talked to would say, ‘Oh, we’ll be fine with the study,'” he said. “You know, let’s study this and not ruin the whole industry. Some of them are saying they’re pro-hemp—they’ve been publicly pro-hemp—but they don’t know what to do.”
“I think they’re open-minded. I don’t think they’ve made a decision, but they’re going to be influenced by McConnell and by longstanding relationships with him,” the senator said, unless you have “thousands of people to get them to reevaluate this issue.”
“Most of them have said they’re open, but the default position is to let McConnell have what he wants to have, so that there’s a real danger. That’s what’s going to happen here,” Paul said. “There’s been no thought into these numbers other than to kill the industry, and we have to do everything we can to try to delay this so we can have a real, thoughtful discussion of this over the next year or so. But there is a danger this goes south.”
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The conversation comes days after a bipartisan coalition of 39 state and territory attorneys general called on Congress to clarify the federal definition of hemp and impose regulations preventing the sale of intoxicating cannabinoid products.
In August, McConnell–who ushered in the federal legalization of hemp under the 2018 Farm Bill–took to the Senate floor to criticize those who opposed the ban, including Paul.
Meanwhile, Paul recently filed a standalone bill that would go in the opposite direction of the hemp ban, proposing to triple the concentration of THC that the crop could legally contain, while addressing multiple other concerns the industry has expressed about federal regulations.
The senator introduced the legislation, titled the Hemp Economic Mobilization Plan (HEMP) Act, in June. It mirrors versions he’s sponsored over the last several sessions.
