Hemp bill clears House committee, but its future is uncertain

From Janet Patton of the Lexington Herald-Leader (who has been doing some incredible reporting on the industrial hemp issue):

A week after a first attempt, a hemp bill made it out of the Kentucky House Agriculture Committee with a nearly unanimous vote. But the bill still could die if House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, blocks a vote on the House floor.

Committee chairman Tom McKee, D-Cynthiana, said he hoped that the bill would move forward for the sake of farmers and for the jobs that he said hemp could bring to Kentucky.

“I expected the bill to pass,” McKee said afterward. “In talking with members over the past week, I think a lot of people got some of their concerns relieved.”

McKee said he thinks the bill could pass easily in the House if a vote is allowed.

“That’s up to the speaker. I favor taking it to the floor,” McKee said. “He knows I would like to see it on the floor.”…

Stumbo said Monday that he isn’t for the bill. Late last week, he requested an opinion from Attorney General Jack Conway on whether the hemp legislation is needed, because state statutes require Kentucky to mirror federal law.

“It is my contention that Kentucky is already poised to adopt the federal hemp growing rules as soon as they come into existence and that Kentucky has no need for additional state bureaucracy involving permits issued by a state hemp czar,” Stumbo wrote.

In response, Comer has written Conway to say that the statute also requires the Kentucky Industrial Hemp Commission, which Comer leads, to “recommend legislation with respect to policies and practices that will result in the proper legal growing of industrial hemp. … By recommending SB50, the KIHC honored its obligation under existing Kentucky law.”

Hemp commission member Jonathan Miller, the former Kentucky treasurer and a Democrat, also has written Conway and planned to meet with him Wednesday to discuss why the hemp commission recommended the language in SB50.

Miller said that if President Barack Obama’s administration removes the restriction on growing hemp or issues a waiver, Kentucky might not be considered eligible without the licensing framework.

Miller also said that if the federal bill sponsored by U.S. Sens. Mitch McConnell, R-Louisville, and Rand Paul, R-Bowling Green, and others in Kentucky’s Washington delegation passes, federal rules might not address the concerns brought up by Kentucky State Police.

Measures to address those concerns, such as requiring the GPS coordinates of all hemp fields, have been incorporated into Senate Bill 50, Miller said, but they might be part of a “one-size-fits-all federal regulatory scheme.”

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