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Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2019

Floor Speech

Date: Dec. 4, 2020
Location: Washington, DC

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Mr. SMITH of Nebraska. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the time.

Mr. Speaker, much of the debate we have heard today has been about criminal justice and the child safety implications of this bill. But I would like to focus on the troubling aspect of this bill in the tax title.

This bill would create a new Federal tax on marijuana, starting at 5 percent in the first year and escalating to 8 percent after 5 years. We always hear about tax parity in this Chamber, yet the treatment of these products compared to tobacco are vastly different--vastly different.

Let me say again, though, that this bill taxes marijuana, which has the potential to impact society really in unknown ways or at least in ways that we should all be concerned about, but at less than half the tax rate of a pack of cigarettes.

Once these taxes are created, rather than treating them as general revenue where they could actually help defray the costs associated with the Department of the Treasury's newly created obligation to regulate marijuana growers, importers, and retailers, the bill would actually divert tax revenue into four brand-new government programs, including one to create subsidies for businesses.

This bill creates new criminal penalties for failure to pay the taxes. So, this isn't criminal justice reform. It is actually creating different types of penalties and criminalization and would likely lead to jail for small-time dealers for tax evasion instead of for selling their product.

Mr. Speaker, I don't support the underlying purposes of this bill, the legalization itself nationwide, but even if I did, I can't support the terribly flawed design, in terms of taxation, and the overall form of this bill.

Mr. Speaker, we have been waiting for months for Democrats to get serious about COVID relief, focusing on safely reopening our economy and helping folks who need it the most. Yet, here we are today, talking about a legalization bill yet again. This is a bad bill at the wrong time. I urge opposition.

Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to the amount of time remaining.

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