Compromise Brewing on Capitol Hill – Hemp Roundtable Reaction to Mary Miller Amendment Language Added to House Appropriations Bill

As we’ve previously reported, Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) included the now-infamous Mary Miller Amendment in the text of his subcommittee’s FY 25 Agriculture/ FDA appropriations bill – legislation passed every year to fund farm programs.
Over the past few weeks, our lobbyists and allied groups held well over 100 meetings to urge the deletion of the Mary Miller language being included in yesterday’s markup of the bill. 
 
Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful with that goal.  Despite many Members of Congress – from both parties — telling us that they would vote for our cause, no one ultimately was willing to take the lead and introduce an amendment. 

There are a lot of reasons behind this that have nothing to do with the merits of the bill, but the primary one is that Rep. Harris, who inserted the language, is a very powerful subcommittee chair – called a “Cardinal” on Capitol Hill – and he and his staff worked hard to make sure that there would be no actual amendment to rescind Mary Miller.  A Cardinal’s threats and/or promises mean a big deal in this committee – he controls a whole lot of money that Members desperately crave.
 
But it is not all bad news. Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) was able to negotiate with Chairman Harris the following report language into the bill.  Of course, report language is not binding.  But having the Committee on the record calling for regulation, not prohibition, — and using language that echoes the regulatory principles favored by a consensus of the hemp industry — will be critical during negotiations down the road, whether in the vote on the House floor, or later when compromising with the Senate.
 
Intoxicating Cannabinoids.—The Committee directs the FDA to evaluate the public health and safety implications of ingestible, inhalable, or topical products on the market that contain intoxicating cannabinoids. The Committee encourages the FDA to assert a stronger commitment to identifying lawful federal regulatory parameters that will protect the public health, such as labeling requirements on all hemp-derived products; testing procedures and standards to ensure product compliance and adverse event reporting; packaging requirements to prevent marketing to minors; and mandatory age limits for these products at the point of purchase. FDA should provide a briefing to the committee within 180 days of the passage of this bill on the authorities needed to adequately regulate cannabinoid hemp products, including authorities to support consumer safety.
 
Dan Newhouse (R-WA) spoke about hemp during the committee: “I would be remiss if I did not relay some of the concerns that I have heard from constituents regarding the production of hemp. My district, I don’t think it’s unusual for many of yours perhaps, has over 100 licensed farms that have worked to bring hemp back into our country’s agricultural portfolio based on the 2018 Farm Bill authorization. In fact, majority of members on this committee have hemp licensed producers in your districts. These farmers are concerned that language included in the underlying bill, while well-intended, makes several arbitrary and industry-crushing changes that would put them out of business. They’re concerned that the language also preempts individual states who have engaged their respective industries to properly regulate hemp-derived products. I can tell you from experience that maintaining a farm is hard enough now a days, and we should support all agricultural producers, particularly those that rely upon a redeveloping agricultural market, such as hemp. I do appreciate the chairman including report language in the Manger’s Amendment that directs the FDA to work on these critical issues that support hemp farmers in all our districts, and I certainly look forward to working with the Chairman on the underlying bill language as we move forward in the fiscal year 25 process.”
 

Matt Cartwright (D-PA) also defended hemp in the markup: “I’d like to associate myself with the remarks of Mr. Newhouse and thank him for those remarks. The importance of hemp is growing every day in this country, including in Pennsylvania. In fact, in northeastern Pennsylvania, we’re creating a hemp hub. It used to be that Pennsylvania was the Nation’s leader in the production of hemp back when we used hemp to produce maritime lines for ocean-going vessels, and nothing is stronger than hemp that you can grow; nothing will uptake heavy metals out of soil to clean up brownfields like hemp; nothing will store carbon pound-for-pound like hemp; and hemp ends up being a wonderful way to shore up concrete – you’ve probably heard of ‘hempcrete’. Hemp can be used in building materials – it’s a terrific product, and it’s time for us to stop being afraid of it because there are better things to smoke anyway.”

Perhaps even more importantly, Chairman Harris publicly affirmed promises made to us by him and his staff that the Mary Miller language is a placeholder and that they will be working over the next several weeks to make adjustments to better protect the hemp industry. He is now on record promising to protect good actors in the space: “I want to thank the gentlemen from Washington and Pennsylvania for mentioning it. You know, what we wanna do, and we’ll continue working on this, is get the bad actors out – the ones who are… converting some of that delta-8, which is a dangerous psychoactive substance. So we’ll continue to work on that. We do not wanna harm the people who are the good actors and most of them are the good actors, so be assured of that.”

While we disagree with the Chairman’s viewpoint on delta-8 – and we will continue to fight for the regulation, not prohibition of all hemp products — it is encouraging to hear from him that he believes that most players in the hemp space are good actors.  The accompanying report language further makes evident that Congress wants FDA to adequately regulate, not ban any hemp products, even those that are potentially impairing.
 
It is clear that we still have our work cut out for us in the next several weeks – or potentially spreading into the new year and a new Congress. 

We urge you to utilize our Federal Action Center to contact your Members of Congress today, share this message on social media and with your business partners, and stay tuned for more developments in the space.