The majority leader of the United States Senate is a huge fan of industrial hemp.

Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, is so hopeful about the economic benefits the plant can bring to his home state that he inserted a provision in a large agriculture bill now being considered by the Senate that would protect hemp farmers from federal interference.

The language in the FY2016 Agriculture Appropriations Bill would prevent federal authorities from spending money to impede the “transportation, processing, sale, or use of industrial hemp…within or outside the State in which the industrial hemp is grown or cultivated.”

Kentucky and 12 other states have laws allowing for industrial hemp, but federal law still considers the plant a Schedule I controlled substance indistinct from its psychoactive cousin, marijuana.

“Kentucky’s industrial hemp pilot programs continue to prosper and I want to make sure our legal hemp producers can safely transport their crops between states, including to States that maintain processing facilities, so they can fully capitalize on the commercial potential for this commodity,” McConnell said in a press release.

Last month, the Republican majority leader worked with Democrats to insert similar language in a separate funding bill, which covers the Department of Justice and other parts of the government, to prevent the Drug Enforcement Administration from interfering with state industrial hemp programs.

Both bills have cleared the Senate Appropriations Committee and normally would be headed next to the full Senate floor. However, the appropriations process has stalled amid partisan bickering on other issues, and it is uncertain whether these and other individual funding bills will be considered on the floor of either the House or Senate. If not, Congressional leaders will likely tie in provisions from the committee-passed spending bills into one large “omnibus” package to be considered later …read more

Source:: Weed Feed