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Tag: Jacky Rosen

  • The Democratic 8 Also Knifed The Hemp Industry

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    The Democratic 8 Also Knifed The Hemp Industry — siding with prohibitionists to gut veterans’ healthcare and hemp innovation.

    They are the buzz on the internet and politics worlds over their betrayal to their political party, but did you know the Democratic 8 also knifed the hemp industry?  In a dramatic turn of events, 8 Senate Democrats have quietly helped push through a deal both re-criminalizes intoxicating hemp-derived THC products and strips out key medical-marijuana provisions previously cleared both chambers of Congress. The implications for both healthcare and cannabis policy are significant.

    Under the newly negotiated spending package, negotiators agreed to ban “intoxicating hemp-based or hemp-derived products, including Delta-8,” while preserving non-intoxicating CBD and industrial hemp. At the same time, the legislation omits the provisions the House and Senate earlier this year passed to enable physicians at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to recommend medical marijuana to veterans — language now excluded from this deal.

    RELATED: Study Reveals Stance By Physicians And Public About Cannabis

    From a healthcare standpoint, this is a two‐fold blow. First: healthcare access for veterans. The VA‐doctor recommendation language was seen as a breakthrough for veteran patients who seek alternatives to opioids or other pain management tools. Now it’s gone. Second: the broader THC market. By re-criminalizing intoxicating hemp THC products — despite their existence in a previously lawful grey-zone post-Agricultural Marketing Act of 2018 (the “2018 Farm Bill”) environment — Congress has signalled certain “hemp-derived” cannabinoids are being pulled back under prohibition.

    Senator Kaine voted to put in a knife in the Hemp industry

    the group of eight Senate Democrats who broke from the caucus to vote in favour of advancing a funding deal to end the government shutdown include:

    • Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.)
    • Dick Durbin (D-Ill.)
    • John Fetterman (D-Pa.)
    • Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.)
    • Tim Kaine (D-Va.)
    • Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.)
    • Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) – whose daughter is also running for Congress
    • Angus King (I-Maine, caucuses with Democrats)

    What stands out is the ban on intoxicating hemp THC products came in the same spending package, even though earlier this year the House and Senate had passed language to allow VA doctors to recommend medical marijuana for veterans. The new deal reverses earlier momentum.

    For advocates of veteran healthcare this is a cold shower in addition to the failed promise to help with healthcare premiums.  It is also a deliberate smack at any real cannabis policy reform. The exclusion of VA-doctor recommendation language means veterans may have to continue navigating patchy state laws and federal prohibitions without help from the federal agency meant to serve them. Meanwhile, hemp business operators say the ban threatens a multibillion‐dollar industry built around hemp-derived cannabinoids.

    RELATED: The Feds Foul Play Around Cannabis

    The timing is also politically striking. By tying these policy reversals to a must-pass government-funding measure, negotiators effectively placed them in the envelope of “budget compromise” rather than standalone reform. This means Democrat 8 can gut healthcare in two separate ways at the same time…with the hemp being a hidden negative for veteran with PTSD, cancer patients and others who the American Medical Association say could benefit.

    On the hemp side, the language undercuts previous regulatory efforts by Democratic senators. In September, eight Senate Democrats had sent a letter urging party leaders not to re-criminalize hemp THC products. But given the opportunity the deal they signed onto does exactly did re-criminalize hemp.  You wonder if their early comments were just for votes and optics.

    The deal pushed by Democratic negotiators didn’t just fail to extend healthcare protection, it actively reversed course on veteran access to medical cannabis and tightened federal restrictions on hemp-derived intoxicants. Whether this will spark further legislative fights, or judicial ones, remains to be seen. What is clear is a policy moment earlier this year looked like progress has now been shunted aside hidden under cover of a budget compromise.

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    Terry Hacienda

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  • US Postal Service is abandoning a plan to reroute Reno-area mail processing to Sacramento

    US Postal Service is abandoning a plan to reroute Reno-area mail processing to Sacramento

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    RENO, Nev. (AP) — The U.S. Postal Service said Tuesday it is abandoning a plan to reroute Reno-area mail processing to Sacramento that had created an uproar among northern Nevadans concerned it could delay local deliveries and jeopardize on-time arrival of mail-in election ballots.

    USPS said in a statement it has identified “enhanced efficiencies” that will allow processing of single-piece mail to continue at the existing Reno postal facility. It said it does not anticipate the revised strategy will have any impacts on postal workers in Reno.

    The latest change in plans is subject to formal regulatory filings it intends to initiate next month with the Postal Regulatory Commission, the service said.

    Sen. Jacky Rosen said it should mean an end to “this misguided Washington plan.”

    “The announcement that this widely opposed transfer of local mail processing operations will no longer happen is a huge win for our seniors, veterans, and every person in Northern Nevada who depends on timely mail delivery,” Rosen said.

    Rosen, a Democrat running for reelection against Republican Sam Brown in one of the most hotly contested Senate races in the nation, took the lead earlier this year in bipartisan efforts to fight the original plan. She was joined by fellow Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, Republican Rep. Mark Amodei and Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo.

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    Lombardo said it was “a huge bipartisan victory for Nevada.” He said in a statement posted on social media that he was “grateful to have worked alongside” Rosen, Cortez Masto and Amodei to protect Nevadans ”from misguided D.C. bureaucracy.”

    Democratic Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar, the state’s top election official, had warned moving operations could slow the processing of mail ballots and “has the potential to disenfranchise thousands of Nevada voters and would unquestionably impact the results of Nevada’s elections.”

    Most Nevadans voted by mail in the 2022 general election and this year’s statewide primary in June — 51% in November 2022 and 65% in the primary two months ago.

    Postmaster General Louis DeJoy had pitched the original downsizing plan — which was expected to be put in place next year — as a necessary cost-saving move. It drew intense opposition in Nevada because it would have meant that all mail sent from the Reno area would pass through Sacramento before reaching its final destination — even from one side of the city to the other.

    Lawmakers warned that even in the best weather, mail service could be caught in traffic delays during the 260-mile (418-kilometer) roundtrip drive on U.S. Interstate 80 over the top of the Sierra Nevada between Reno and Sacramento.

    And heavy snowfall typically closes the highway multiple times a year in the mountains during harsh winter weather, which can begin as early as fall and stretch into late spring.

    Rosen and Amodei introduced companion legislation in Congress in March to block the processing transfer after a blizzard dumped up to 10 feet (3 meters) of snow on the mountains earlier that month.

    The service said in a statement Tuesday more details will be released after a Sept. 5 pre-filing conference with the Postal Regulatory Commission “to discuss the proposal and gain stakeholder feedback in anticipation of a subsequent filing” seeking a formal advisory opinion from the commission.

    “If the regulatory process is successful, there will be no change to the location for cancelling certain originating mail in Reno,” it said. “In simpler terms, outgoing single piece mail will continue to be processed at its current location.”

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