National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, it was not very long ago when I was on the floor of the Senate with the distinguished majority leader, Senator McConnell, and the two of us were making the case for our bipartisan bill to legalize hemp, which we are very much interested in having included in the farm bill. I will talk a little bit more about our work on that.

Our original sponsors were Senator Merkley and Senator Paul, and since then we have added 28 additional Members of the U.S. Senate as cosponsors.

What I am going to do this afternoon for just a few minutes is talk about why it is so important that our bipartisan legislation, now cosponsored by almost one-third of this body, get enacted and be included as part of the farm bill.

It is Hemp History Week again, and that is why I am back on the Senate floor to talk about the only schedule I controlled substance you can sew into a T-shirt and wear through TSA.

Here, as we start, is the real head-scratcher: Products made with hemp are perfectly legal, but growing industrial hemp is a crime. There can't be many policies on the book that are more anti-farmer than that one. So I have a bottom line, which I discussed with Majority Leader McConnell recently on the floor of the Senate; that is, if you can buy it at a supermarket in America, our farmers ought to be allowed to grow it in America.

For me, this issue goes back to a trip my wife and I took to a grocery store near our home in Southeast Portland. Nancy was pregnant with our youngest daughter at the time, and we were always on the hunt for healthy foods that would fill our cart. So we grabbed the fruits and vegetables, and there, perched on one of the shelves, was a large bag of hemp hearts. The packaging had really big, colorful text, and it said that it was heart-healthy and protein-rich. But I knew the product couldn't have been grown in the United States because there was a Federal ban. So I looked at this product, and I turned to my wife and I said: You know, hemp growers in places like Canada and China must be laughing all the way to the bank. They are cashing in while our farmers have their hands tied by the current hemp restrictions.

So here with me on the floor is one of our very capable young staffers, Malcolm, from Southern Oregon. Malcolm is holding a variety of products that are made with hemp, this schedule I substance that our laws make out to be a perilous danger to the public.

For a few minutes, let's take a look at what Malcolm has. He has a few schedule I snack bars. He has some schedule I hand soap. He is even wearing a schedule I necktie. The point is, they are all perfectly legal products that you will find on shelves in stores throughout the Nation. But because the hemp had to be imported, none of it could be considered fully American-made.

So, as I have with the majority leader on past occasions, I want to make sure everyone understands a simple fact about hemp. Hemp is not a drug, and treating it like one was wrong from the get-go. Smoking hemp would be nothing but a waste of time, breath, and lighter fluid. It defies common sense that our laws consider hemp to be dangerous and addictive like crystal meth. Having one too many hemp granola bars might give you a stomach ache, but you aren't going to land in the hospital.

So hemp is not a drug. What it is, is a huge opportunity for American farmers. That is why the original sponsors of this legislation--Senator McConnell, Senator Merkley, Senator Paul, and I--introduced the Hemp Farming Act of 2018. It is the latest version of a bill that I began putting in front of this body in 2012.

Our bill would end hemp's days as a controlled substance, and it would legalize its growth in America. What the bill does is clear the way for farmers in Oregon, Kentucky, and literally from sea to shining sea, it gives the green light to farmers across the land who are clamoring for the growth that legalized industrial hemp would bring for their farms and their communities.

Nearly 2 months after my colleagues and I introduced the Hemp Farming Act, as I said, a very large delegation of Senators of both political parties have signed on as cosponsors. Democratic Senators, Republican Senators--we can have some pretty spirited disagreements around here, but these are Senators who know a brainless, anti-farmer policy when you see one.

There is a companion bill in the other body that has strong bipartisan support as well. So we are going to keep at it, our bipartisan coalition, in order to build support for this throughout the days ahead.

Here in the Senate, Members are hard at work putting together a bipartisan farm bill, and we are very pleased to see the leadership on both the majority side and the minority side--Chairman Roberts and Senator Stabenow--working very closely to put together a bipartisan farm bill, which would be a perfect opportunity to move this forward.

I am constantly saying at home in Oregon--very supportive of agriculture: Let's grow it in America. Let's add value to it in many America, and let's ship it wherever we can in order to create jobs-- jobs that start on the farm.

We have momentum growing, and that is why Hemp History Week--this time when I come to the floor and talk about this broad array of products--is designed to get the facts out about growing hemp.

Before growing hemp was made illegal, hemp was among the predominant American crops for generations. It was grown in the fields of Mount Vernon. It was threaded into the ropes and sails of the first ships made for the U.S. Navy. If hemp were easier to rhyme, it might even have its own lyric in ``America the Beautiful,'' right alongside ``amber waves of grain.''

I believe it is long past time for Congress to throw out an anti- farmer policy and legalize--by the way, both leaders of this body, Senator McConnell and Senator Schumer, are cosponsors of this bill because they understand that it defies common sense to be anti-farmer in this way. Both leaders of this body share the view that it is time to legalize the industrial growth of hemp.

This is just a modest number of products made of hemp. Products made with hemp constitute a $1 billion market in this country.

If there is only one thing I have said today that people will remember in all this, it ought to be that if you can buy it in a grocery store in America, farmers ought to be able to grow it in America. It is just that simple.

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