Politics
Congressional Lawmakers Hold Hearing On Hemp As Work Begins On 2023 Farm Bill
A congressional panel held a hearing on Thursday that touched on a wide range of hemp issues, with lawmakers and witnesses—including two state agriculture commissioners and industry representatives—highlighting reforms they would like to see made as part of the 2023 Farm Bill.
The House Agriculture Subcommittee on Biotechnology, Horticulture, and Research has jurisdiction over areas of specific, limited hemp policy matters, but members took the opportunity to discuss broader issues such as proposals to allow marketing of products containing derivatives like CBD, increase the THC limit for legal crops and eliminate Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) lab testing requirements.
Unburdening the hemp industry is simple:
⬆️ Raise the allowable THC threshold
❌ Remove DEA lab testing restrictions
🛑 Stop the discriminatory license banThese are commonsense solutions in my Hemp Advancement Act @HouseAgDems will hear about + more in today’s 10am hearing pic.twitter.com/1VTFeUCu2y
— Congresswoman Chellie Pingree 🇺🇸 🇺🇦 (@chelliepingree) July 28, 2022
Hemp was federally legalized as part of the 2018 Farm Bill, but while that bipartisan achievement was welcome news for advocates and industry stakeholders, opening up what’s become a massive market in the U.S., many have pointed out challenges with the implementation of the current law by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that they say can be fixed with future legislative reforms.
“While markets for hemp products such as fiber, grain and flower are developing, they are still volatile and uncertain,” Chair Stacey Plaskett (D-USVI) said in her opening remarks. “To support farmers and producers in the ongoing development of this emerging sector, it’s crucial that USDA continue to work to support and expand hemp production and the hemp industry.”
Hemp is grown for use in the production of a wide range of products. There are three leading markets for hemp: fiber, seed, and oil. However, these markets are still volatile and underdeveloped.
— House Agriculture Committee (@HouseAgDems) July 28, 2022
“As we look towards the next Farm Bill, we can continue to address ongoing issues and provide our farmers, producers, processors and agricultural researchers with the resources they need,” she said.
Watch the committee discuss hemp the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) hemp program in the video below:
Ranking Member Jim Baird (R-IN) said that “while we are certain to hear about successes in the hemp industry, it’s important to note that we have many challenges.” He also said it would have been useful to have representatives of USDA and FDA present at the hearing and expressed hope that federal officials would appear before the panel in the future.
Rep. Glenn Thompson (R-PA), ranking member of the full Agriculture Committee, echoed that latter point, expressing frustration that USDA and FDA were “missing in action” at the hearing despite the central role they play in hemp regulatory matters.
The subcommittee announced last week that it would hold a hemp-related hearing, though the initial notice offered little detail about what members would be specifically discussing.
The conversation that unfolded largely focused on policies that could be incorporated into the 2023 Farm Bill. Another key area of interest for stakeholders is the marketing of hemp-derived CBD, but that would likely fall under the jurisdiction of a different committee dealing with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Changes enacted in the 2014 and 2018 Farm Bills removed long-standing Federal restrictions on the cultivation of hemp and it is now an agricultural crop regulated by USDA.
— House Agriculture Committee (@HouseAgDems) July 28, 2022
Kate Greenberg, commissioner of the Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA), said that hemp “has the potential to create new economic opportunities for farmers who are dealing with a changing climate and increasingly arid land.”
“Our young farmers and ranchers are constantly seeking new ways to support their bottom line and the environment at the same time,” she said. “The hemp industry has the potential to advance CDA’s priorities if we listen to our producers and implement sensible regulations.”
Some of those priorities include lowering fees for hemp sampling and testing, removing background check barriers and ending “duplicative” acreage reporting rules, she said.
The top regulator at the Kentucky Department of Agriculture (KDA) said that, like other states, Kentucky “observed a rapid expansion of acreages from 2015 through 2019, followed by an equally rapid decline beginning with the 2020 growing season.”
I am pleased to testify to the United States House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture, Subcommittee on Biotechnology, Horticulture and Research on behalf of Kentucky hemp farmers and producers. pic.twitter.com/9i9aAceg9o
— Commissioner Ryan Quarles (@KYAgCommish) July 28, 2022
“One reason for this decline was that production in the previous years, particularly the 2019 growing season, far outpaced demand,” KDA Commissioner Ryan Quarles said in his testimony. “Many farmers ended that year with a hemp harvest for which there was no buyer, even those who started the year with a signed contract. There remains a surplus of harvested hemp from that year.”
Quarles also made policy recommendations to the panel, including removing the DEA lab testing requirement for hemp and increasing the lawful THC limit for the crop from 0.3 percent THC by dry weight to one percent.
But while there’s widespread support for raising the THC limit, the commissioner also recommended that all THC isomers be included in that analysis, including delta-8 THC. That proposal may well prove controversial for some stakeholders, as market demand for the intoxicating cannabinoid that’s synthesized from hemp-derived CBD has boomed in recent years.
Marcus Grignon, executive director of Hempstead Project Heart and a tribal representative, also made recommendations to the panel that he said would “strengthen the hemp production provisions from the 2018 Farm Bill.”
“Bank regulations need revision to ease current restrictions for hemp operations. It is difficult to find a bank that will take business accounts connected to hemp production and processing, not to mention insurance companies,” he said, adding that “there needs to be a USDA stamp of approval for hemp being shipped between the various jurisdictions in the United States. This will help with any issues that arise with interstate commerce.”
The chairman of the full Agriculture Committee, Rep. David Scott (D-GA) said in February that he felt the next iteration of the Farm Bill should go even further than hemp and include provisions dealing with marijuana—specifically policies to remove cannabis industry barriers for Black entrepreneurs and small businesses.
As the Chair of the House Agriculture Committee, I am committed to addressing the issue of cannabis in our next Farm Bill. We need to eliminate barriers for small businesses and Black entrepreneurs to start legal cannabis companies under state law. https://t.co/7P2yKFNYXr
— David Scott (@Electdavidscott) March 5, 2022
Subcommittee member Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME), for her part, filed a bill titled the “Hemp Advancement Act” in February that’s meant to provide hemp businesses with additional regulatory flexibility that stakeholders have been seeking. The measure, which she has said is intended to start discussion on reforms in anticipation of the next Farm Bill, would further remove a controversial ban on hemp market participation by people with prior drug convictions.
Pingree said at the hearing that hemp is “a promising crop,” but “we have a long ways to go before we’ve smoothed out all the issues.” She emphasized the need to remove the DEA lab testing requirements, lift the 10-year ban on hemp industry participation by people with drug-related felony convictions and raise the THC limit for hemp.
Further, the congresswoman said that the background check requirement that mandates fingerprinting is onerous, particularly in states with significant rural communities like Maine, where there’s just one post office that processing fingerprints.
The 2018 Farm Bill established the legal production of hemp, expanded the definition of hemp, and gave USDA the authority to regulate hemp cultivation through the U.S. Domestic Hemp Production Program.
— House Agriculture Committee (@HouseAgDems) July 28, 2022
The Congressional Research Service (CRS) released a report in March that outlined various components of the 2018 Farm Bill and made recommendations for future policy considerations, including those dealing with hemp. For example, the paper noted stakeholder feedback about revising the federal definition of hemp by increasing the allowable THC limit.
CRS also said that Congress should take into account industry complaints about the ongoing absence of FDA regulations to market hemp-derived CBD products in the food supply and possible take steps to address the problem.
KDA’s commissioner said plainly that, “if you were to ask me what the biggest issue facing hemp is today, it would be the lack of direction from the FDA.”
Eric Wang, CEO of Ecofibre who testified on behalf of the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, said that “farmers are not the only ones who are being negatively impacted by this regulatory uncertainty.”
“Consumers are also impacted,” he said. Bad actors are selling products without appropriate safeguards and misleading consumers with false label claims.”
Meanwhile, House Appropriations Committee leaders recently released spending legislation for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that calls for multiagency coordination to create guidance on hemp manufacturing and also recommends that the department work with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to resolve concerns about enforcement actions for so-called “hot hemp” that exceeds the 0.3 percent THC limit during extract processing.
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USDA released the results of a massive, first-ever federal survey on the hemp industry in February, providing a “benchmark” analysis of the economic impact of the burgeoning market. At a top level, the department’s survey found that the hemp market’s value reached $824 million in 2021, with about 54,200 acres grown across the country.
Back in Congress, Reps. Kurt Schrader (D-OR) and Morgan Griffith (R-VA) filed a bill earlier this year that’s aimed at allowing hemp and CBD derived from the crop to be marketed and sold as dietary supplements.
In the Senate, Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Rand Paul (R-KY) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) introduced legislation that would similarly exempt “hemp, hemp-derived cannabidiol, or a substance containing any other ingredient derived from hemp” from certain restrictions that have blocked the emergence of legal consumable hemp products while the FDA has slow-walked regulations.
Paul also filed a separate measure last year that would triple the concentration of THC that hemp could legally contain while addressing multiple other concerns the industry has expressed about the federal regulations.
This hearing on hemp comes two days after the House approved a bipartisan cannabis research bill and a Senate Judiciary subcommittee convened for a first-of-its-kind hearing on federal marijuana reform.
A newly introduced Senate cannabis legalization bill would also have implications for the hemp industry, though there are serious doubts about whether the measure has enough support to reach the 60-vote threshold in the chamber.
Photo courtesy of Brendan Cleak.
