Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, Chairman Nadler, ranking members, this is an important piece of legislation. How do I know that? Because the people have told us that.

Every time they have had the opportunity to vote in America, they have voted to do this. They know that filling our prisons and creating criminal records for people who use marijuana--and knowing full well that if they are people of color, the possibilities of adverse consequences are geometrically greater.

I tell my colleagues, I am tired of hearing this argument that, ``Oh, my goodness, we are doing this. We ought to be doing something else.''

We are all working on issues of great concern not only to us but to the global community: on the war in Ukraine; on the criminal activities that Putin is subjecting us to; on inflation, a critical problem for all of our people. We are working on that. We are having trouble getting some legislation in the Senate that will bring down inflation and bring down costs for the American people--not on our side of the aisle.

So, when I hear this argument, ``Oh, we ought to be doing this. We ought to be doing that. We ought to be doing the other,'' this is an important, fair piece of legislation, fair for the American people.

I thank Chairman Nadler. I thank the Judiciary Committee. I thank Members on my side of the aisle. I thank Barbara Lee, who is walking down the aisle right now, who has worked so hard on this.

Why did she work so hard on it? Because she knows the extraordinary unfairness of the application of existing laws. You don't have to argue that. Just look at the statistics, and you find that to be the case.

Chairman Nadler has long been a champion of decriminalizing marijuana and addressing the systemic injustices and inequities resulting from the war on drugs. I was a supporter of the war on drugs. I have been here a long time.

The gentleman who spoke about this as a gateway drug, it is not a gateway drug. I have been convinced of that.

Marijuana has been legalized in 19 States. That is 40 percent of our States, save one, and the District of Columbia. Medical marijuana is legal in 36 States. This is not out of the ordinary. This is what the American people tell us they think is the appropriate thing to do.

Now, for some in this House, those who are treated with inequality, particularly in this area, you are on your own. Make it out for yourself. We are not going to address it because we have other issues.

Of course, we have other issues, and we pass bills on those-- unfortunately, not with much support from the other side of the aisle.

Despite the changes in State laws and social norms around the usage of marijuana, its use remains illegal under Federal law. The gentleman who is presiding over the House today comes from a State that has said that is not good policy. Now, that is not some wacko coastal State. It is Colorado.

Despite changes in State laws and social norms, as I have said, its use remains illegal under Federal law, often resulting in devastating consequences. Hear me, my colleagues: devastating consequences for Black, Latino, and Native communities.

Now, I am not any of those. I would tell you, when I was in college in the 1800s, it was alcohol. We were not the generation of drugs; it was alcohol. It devastated the lives of literally hundreds of thousands of young people. But nobody cried out to make it illegal. They tried that, of course, in the twenties.

According to the Center for American Progress, Black Americans are four times more likely than White Americans to be arrested for marijuana possession, even though they use it at similar rates.

The gentleman who spoke asked why we are dealing with this. For the same reason our Founders said that we believe in equality, that all men--and they surely would add women today--are created equal and ought to be treated fairly and equally. Four times more convictions and prosecutions for people of color--that is why we are dealing with this, because it is unfair in America.

Those criminal records can haunt people of color and impact the trajectory of their lives and careers indefinitely. I regret that there are some Members of our Congress who apparently think that is not worthy of attention.

It can result in difficulty in finding employment, difficulty in finding housing, denial of access to government benefits, denial of financial aid at colleges and universities, and denial of the right to vote. That is why we are dealing with this, because the adverse consequences to people are substantial and negative, and negative not only for them but for our country.

The legislation before us would remove marijuana from the list of scheduled substances under the Controlled Substances Act, allowing our police departments--which we want to fund, by the way, so get off that line that we want to defund the police--allow our police departments to focus on serious crimes. The legislation before us would remove marijuana from that list.

The bill already, by the way, includes a requirement that a study will be conducted to understand the societal impacts of decriminalizing marijuana, including the impact on juveniles, education, transportation, veterans, employment, and many others.

This bill also expunges the records of individuals convicted of nonviolent--let me repeat that--nonviolent cannabis offenses and provides resources for job training, reentry services, and youth recreation and mentoring programs.

Now, if you take the position that all of these people are on their own and want no help from us or get no help from us, then perhaps you don't care.

This bill also addresses the disproportionate economic impact of the war on drugs by providing access to small-business grants, opening up the legal marketplace to communities that have been largely excluded.

This bill is a matter of justice and equal opportunity. It is about addressing systemic inequities and reforming our criminal justice system so that Americans and America can become a better, stronger, more fair, and more just America.

That is why we are spending time on this bill today.

I thank my friend one more time, Chairman Nadler, for his leadership on this bill. I also thank Mr. Neal for helping us get this bill to the floor. I also thank Barbara Lee, my dear friend.

Barbara Lee and I have been working for some years now on how to lift people out of poverty into the middle class. We talk a lot about the middle class, and the way you grow the middle class is to let people who aren't in it in it so they can contribute to making a better, stronger America.

This bill will help that because it will take the stigma away from four times as many people of color being stigmatized by our laws.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, support this bill. The people of Mississippi supported this bill when they went to the polls and voted--not on this bill, that is not accurate--but on the decriminalization of marijuana, because they knew that it was neither necessary to be criminalized, and they knew the adverse impacts.

I don't ask you to support something the people of California did or the people of New York, or even Maryland, but think about supporting the people of Mississippi, who voted on a policy that would make a fair and more just America.

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