A top congressional cannabis leader is pressing the Biden administration on marijuana issues to act “now” on federal marijuana schedules, before the upcoming elections. In the meantime, she is “cautiously hopeful” that Congress will pass a limited banking reform. However, the prospects of this are complicated due to the Republican control in the House.
Rep. Barbara Lee, co-chairwoman of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus and member of the International Cannabis Bar Association’s (INCBA), shared her views on marijuana during a fireside discussion hosted by INCBA on Thursday.
She seemed to temper expectations early in the conversation about the prospects for enacting a reform in the near term. “We’ve got figure out a path permanent, and we’re still not sure.”
She said, “I don’t know if I can pass anything that makes sense, given the makeup of this Congress.” “We should have done this last year, when the Democrats were in charge. But we didn’t.”
She said, however, at the conference, that lawmakers must “find a path” for reform. Lee suggested this could be in the form an executive order by President Joe Biden. He directed a review of marijuana scheduling last year, which agencies are working hard to complete.
Lee stated that Biden and Kamalah Harris “deserve kudos” for their efforts, but it needs to be done faster.
“I don’t want it to linger, because next is an election. You know what will happen. “People will be everywhere,” she said. We have to tell them to do this now.
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The Senate Banking Committee will vote on the marijuana banking bill in the next two or three weeks, according to the chairman. The Senate Banking Committee is planning to mark up the legislation “soon,”, the chairman’s offices told Marijuana Moment Thursday.
She spoke about her experience in negotiating the bill on the House side during the last session. “There were many, quite rightly, who wanted it to be held up,” she said, because the standalone criminal justice reform legislation lacked specific elements.
She said to the Senate leaders, “They better do everything we negotiated in good faith.” “I’m cautiously hopeful that they will do this in Senate, but it’ll have to go back to the House.” “But I’m still thinking about the future, and how will we handle this when it comes to our side?”
She described it as a “tough negotiations” during the last Congress. “I’m going to have to go in at night and negotiate the passage of SAFE Banking Act, with the promise that these equity provisions will be included. They better not mess us up now.”
The filibuster rules in the Senate are the biggest obstacle. Lee continued, “We’ve got 60 votes to reach the 60-vote threshold. “And that is the biggest problem.” “But I think that if we can get the votes, and keep it bipartisan then it will be done.”
The congresswoman also echoed previous points made by Sen. Cory Booker. She said that the marijuana market as it is today “does not do well at all when it comes to equity,” and that “it’s hard to penetrate.”
Lee is running for the Senate and said she would use her position as “platform” in that chamber to “help organize public opinion in ways we can educate publics everywhere in the United States about the need to deschedule and reform.”
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Photo by Brian Shamblen.
The first time Marijuana Moment appeared was when Congresswoman Urges Biden to Act on Marijuana “Now” as Negotiations Continue on Banking Bill .
