A House Agriculture subcommittee has scheduled a hearing on hemp issues for next week, and the expectation is that members will be discussing expanding on regulations for the crop as part of the next Farm Bill package.
Members of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Biotechnology, Horticulture, and Research will meet on Thursday for the hearing, titled, “An Examination of the USDA Hemp Production Program.”
Hemp was federally legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill, opening up a cannabis market that has rapidly expanded—but not without industry growing pains. While advocates and stakeholders were pleased to see Congress incorporate certain feedback about rules for the non-intoxicating crop, they still see ample opportunity for improvement.
The hearing notice is currently light on details, and it doesn’t reference the 2023 Farm Bill that lawmakers have already started contemplating. But it wouldn’t be especially surprising if there was some discussion about ways to build upon the existing hemp regulations through that future large-scale agriculture legislation.
The chairman of the full committee, Rep. David Price (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
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