OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Providing for Consideration of H.R. Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act; Providing for Consideration of H.R. Affordable Insulin Now Act; and for Other Purposes

Floor Speech

Date: March 31, 2022
Location: Washington, DC

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the MORE legislation both for what it does and what it does not do.

For starters, the bill authorizes the collection of detailed demographic information on marijuana-sector employees, including their race and ethnicity, for a massive, publicly accessible government database. This is another attempt by Democrats to promote their destructive identity politics agenda and lay the groundwork for a rigid quota system that picks winners and losers based on skin color.

The database will also put more sensitive personal data at risk and open the door to mischief by Federal bureaucrats who have repeatedly weaponized access to Americans' private information to promote a partisan political agenda. Hello IRS.

I am also disappointed that the majority refused to allow votes on two commonsense amendments I proposed. The first would have required child-resistant packaging and a Surgeon General's warning label detailing the dangers these products pose to pregnant women and their unborn babies. Investigative reports have revealed multiple instances of pot shop clerks recommending marijuana to expectant mothers as safe, despite well-documented risks. Few, if any, of these retail clerks have any medical training and should stick to dispensing pot, not prenatal advice.

The second would have banned the use of ingredients or flavor additives in marijuana-infused products such as fruit, chocolate, vanilla, or candy. For years, we have been told by many on the other side that such flavors appeal to children and should be banned from tobacco products. If this standard is good enough for JUUL and Puff Bar, shouldn't it also apply to Cheech and Chong?

Mr. Speaker, this legislation will make an already complicated situation worse. I ask for a ``no'' vote on the rule and a ``no'' vote on the bill.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT


Source
arrow_upward