Washington, D.C. – Two Oregon lawmakers are addressing their concerns over recent federal actions against industrial hemp pilot projects.
Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley joined Rand Paul (R-Ky), Al Franken (D-Minn) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo) in asking Attorney General Jeff Sessions to clarify his position about the hemp industry’s access to financial services.
According to a Senate statement, the 2014 Farm Bill allows certain institutions to conduct industrial hemp research pilot programs in states where it is legal, including Oregon.
Concerned senators said some program participants have experience closure of personal and business accounts at financial institutions.
They wrote in a letter addressed to A.G. Sessions, “This situation is evidently due to the uncertainty of the continued legal status of the industrial hemp industry, and because the funds contained in the accounts are associated with industrial hemp.”
The lawmakers are asking Sessions to make the DOJ’s position on the matter clear, as per the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017, which requires the feds from interfering with authorized industrial hemp programs.
You can read the full text of the letter HERE.
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