Should the Feds Research the Various Uses of Industrial Hemp? (H.R. 3652)

What is H.R. 3652?

(Updated February 5, 2020)

This bill — the Hemp for Victory Act of 2019 — would address several aspects of the re-emerging U.S. hemp industry. Its broad objective is to build and encourage a national hemp industry while encouraging that it’s done correctly, with proper labor, consumer, and health standards; investment incentives; safe agricultural practices; environmental considerations; and more. At its core, this bill would seek to provide opportunities for small businesses, family farms, indigenous populations and veterans to participate in and prosper from the hemp industry.

To achieve its objectives, this bill would expand several U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) programs to include hemp for research and create necessary standards for hemp. It would also require the federal government to conduct several multi-agency studies that analyze hemp’s cultivation and usage. It would also enlist land-grant universities in hemp research efforts. Specifically, this legislation would direct the U.S. Depts. Of Health and Human Services (HHS), Defense (DOD), Labor (DOL), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Veterans Affairs (VA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Small Business Administration (SBA) to conduct research on and develop studies on hemp’s uses and benefits. Research questions and specific actions for each agency would be as follows: 

U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA): The USDA would be directed to:

• Establish a grant program for land-grant universities to conduct research on establishing hemp as a domestic agricultural commodity;
  
• Study the nutritional value of hemp foods, drinks and supplement products; 
  
• Study whether such hemp products could be used as low-cost healthy alternatives for public school lunches for low-income students; 
  
• Research whether items being used by the federal government its contractors could be substituted by hemp-based products; 
  
• Study the potential of hemp for soil erosion control and as a windscreen;
  
• Create guidance for cultivating organic hemp;
  
• Designate hemp as a high priority research crop eligible for grants that would be used to develop and disseminate science-based tools and treatments to combat noxious species that impact hemp farms, and to establish and areawide integrated pest management program;
  
• Research the economics of the international hemp market;
  
• Study the “use and presence of agricultural chemicals and pathogens” in hemp to inform public safety standards;
  
• Make hemp available for grants to conduct research on the cultivation of hemp as a commodity, including production guidance for underserved and rural communities and technical assistance for available grants;
  
• Integrate hemp into market research publications; and
  
• Study how to create “buffer zones” between marijuana and hemp farms to avoid cross-pollination.

Dept. of Health and Human Services (DHS): DHS would be directed to: 

• Study the “presence of pathogens in hemp-based and hemp-blended products and their impact on the health and safety of consumers”; and
  
• Study whether hemp can be used as a substitute for health care industry products used to deliver, create, store or administer prescription drugs.

Small Business Administration (SBA): The SBA would be directed to develop guidance manuals for individuals interested in creating a small business. These would focus on Native Hawaiians, Indian Tribes and veterans.

U.S. Dept. of Defense (DOD): DOD would be directed to: 

• Study what items used by the DOD could be substituted with hemp; 
  
• Study the impact of using hemp and derivatives such as CBD on military preparedness; 
  
• Study the use of hemp as an alternative to current health supplements with regard to the armed forces deployed in support of contingency operations, and its effect on preparedness, physical and mental health, and safety, which includes active and non-active service members diagnosed with conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic pain; and
  
• Study hemp’s potential to clear contaminants from nuclear sites and heavy metal contamination.

U.S. Dept. of Labor (DOL): DOL would be directed to: 

• Issue a report on the application of federal laws in states with hemp programs to ensure the health and safety of individuals working in the hemp industry; and
  
• Issue a report on the application of federal laws in states with hemp programs to ensure fair, equitable and proper treatment of individuals working in the hemp industry.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): EPA would be directed to: 

• Study how the cultivation of hemp can assist in weed control, reducing ecological damage, detoxifying carbon dioxide and preventing soil erosion; 
  
• Study how hemp can be used to clear impurities in water, wastewater, sewage effluent and post-disaster relief due to flooding or animal waste; and 
  
• Study whether hemp could be used as a substitute for certain plastics and also research whether such a substitute could reduce landfill waste and ocean pollution.

U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD): HUD would be directed to study hempcrete’s use for affordable and sustainable housing.

U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA): The VA would be directed to study the potential benefits of hemp in the treatment of conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic pain, depression and anxiety among veterans.

If enacted, this bill would substantially broaden the category of products that hemp cultivators and processors can manufacture and turn into viable businesses.

Argument in favor

Hemp has a range of possible uses that are worth investing federal government funds into studying. This legislation would provide the funding to study hemp’s uses across a broad range of industries it has the potential to transform.

Argument opposed

Since hemp is already legalized and the private sector has already stepped up to fund research and product development in this space, there’s no need to spend taxpayer money on studying hemp’s applications.

Impact

Hemp; HHS; DOD; DOL; HUD; VA; EPA; SBA; land-grant universities; and hemp research.

Cost of H.R. 3652

A CBO cost estimate is unavailable.

Additional Info

In-Depth: Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) introduced this bill to lay the foundation for the emerging hemp industry in a way that incentivizes family farmers and small businesses, protects against corporate monopolies and studies the benefits of hemp cultivation and hemp-based products while ensuring safe agricultural practices, and environmental and labor considerations: 

“The hemp industry is poised to grow rapidly, having a billion dollar impact on the U.S. economy and creating thousands of jobs. Hemp-based materials have the potential to transform industries from health care to domestic manufacturing to affordable, sustainable housing construction, and more. Studies have shown it can play a role in helping remove toxins from our environment and prevent soil erosion, as well as provide alternatives to single-use plastics, which pollute our lands and ocean. My bill will lay the foundation for how we can optimize the hemp industry’s potential and ensure this opportunity benefits family farms and small businesses across America — from Hawai‘i to Kentucky and beyond.”

In a letter to her Congressional colleagues seeking cosponsors for this bill, Rep. Gabbard wrote: 

“Since the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, which removed hemp from the Controlled Substances Act, there has been a growing interest to capitalize on hemp cultivation across the United States. As a commercial, industrial, and medicinal/therapeutic product, the potential for hemp to become a major U.S. commodity already is evident given continued expansion of hemp cultivation in states and their businesses… [T]he Hemp for Victory Act of 2019… is aimed at creating the foundations for our emerging hemp industry to make sure this crop thrives and produces a booming industry, but that it is done correctly. This means ensuring there are proper labor standards, investment incentives, safe agricultural practices, environmental considerations, and more.”

The Hemp Industries Association supports this bill. One of its board members, Joy Beckerman, says: 

“Congresswoman Gabbard’s commitment to re-energizing the American farmer and delivering on the economic and planetary healing promise of the versatile, valuable hemp plant is exactly what our nation needs, and the time is now to support her bold efforts.”

Kight on Cannabis attorney Kamran Aryah notes that this legislation would expand hemp’s potential uses: 

“This Bill is a big deal: if enacted, it will substantially broaden the category of products that hemp cultivators and processors can manufacture and turn into viable businesses. The CBD “craze” we’re witnessing is at least to some degree a result of the current limited range of uses of hemp and hemp by-products. For a hemp producer, creating a CBD product is currently a viable business model. Despite the various regulatory hurdles, many companies have shown proof of concept and have been very successful in this space. It is going to take targeted, and meaningful investments of time, money and resources to develop new hemp products, and to introduce those products into industries which already have well-established standard raw and finished materials. Let’s take for instance the construction industry, and consider the fact that hemp fibers can be used to produce high-quality insulation for home building. To create a commercial insulation product from hemp, it must either perform the same, or better than traditional insulation and at relatively the same cost. The research and development that goes into creating such a product could have a multi-million dollar price-tag; this is beyond what the average to mid-size hemp company is capable of doing. It’s refreshing to see that Congress may subsidize some of this R&D work by funneling grant money to federal agencies, which can allocate these funds toward promising projects. CBD certainly has action potential on the human body, the extent of which will continue to come to light as medical and pharmacological research continues… However, hemp has myriad other uses which hemp cultivators are hesitant to invest in due to the high cost involved, and the uncertainty around the viability of consumer demand for novel products… I anticipate the proliferation of uses for hemp and hemp by-products in the coming years, and foresee an exponential expansion of the range of hemp products available across many industries. We at Kight Law stand fully behind this Bill that seeks to provide Congress, and the American public with the detailed information necessary to make the hemp revolution a reality of  the 21st century.”

This legislation has one cosponsor, Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN), as well as the support of Vote Hemp, the Hemp Industries Association and Kight on Cannabis. It has yet to receive a committee vote. 

Of Note: Hemp — the non-intoxicating variety of cannabis — has been grown to produce food, paper, nutritional supplements, textiles, building materials, biofuel and thousands of other products for centuries. While it has a long history in the U.S., it was prohibited for decades due to its familial relationship to marijuana. It only recently became legal to grow and harvest again.

This legislation is named after the World War II-era effort to revitalize the U.S. hemp industry. That campaign, called “Hemp for Victory,” encouraged American farmers to grow as much hemp as possible for the war effort after Japan cut off hemp supplies from the Philippines, forcing the U.S. to turn to domestic production. From 1942-1946, American farmers from Wisconsin to Kentucky produced 42,000 tons of hemp fiber annually. However, hemp’s comeback ended following the war, and many Midwestern farmers immediately faced canceled hemp contracts. 

In 1970, the U.S. government passed the Controlled Substances Act and excluded certain hemp products (specifically sterilized hemp seed, hemp fiber and hemp seed oil) from regulation. In 2014, that year’s Farm Bill began allowing states to implement laws allowing state departments of agriculture and universities to grow hemp for research or pilot programs. Finally, last year’s Farm Bill contained provisions removing hemp from the Controlled Substances Act altogether, making it legal for U.S. farmers to grow, process and sell hemp commercially. It also legalized hemp for any use nationwide, including for the extraction of CBD oil. 

In addition to its use in profit-generating uses, hemp is potentially the best bet for a plant to reverse the effects of climate change. Ellen Brown, president of the Public Banking Institute, explains: 

“Planting billions of trees across the world is by far the cheapest and most efficient way to tackle the climate crisis. So states a July 4 article in The Guardian, citing a new analysis published in the journal … The July analytical review in Science calculated how many additional trees could be planted globally without encroaching on crop land or urban areas. It found that there are 1.7 billion hectares (4.2 billion acres) of treeless land on which 1.2 trillion native tree saplings would naturally grow. Using the most efficient methods, 1 trillion trees could be restored for as little as $300 billion – less than 2 percent of the lower range of estimates for the Green New Deal introduced by progressive Democrats in February 2019… The chief drawback of reforestation as a solution to the climate crisis, per The Guardian, is that trees grow slowly. The projected restoration could take 50 to 100 years to reach its full carbon sequestering potential.  Fortunately, as of December 2018 there is now a cheaper, faster and more efficient alternative – one that was suppressed for nearly a century but was legalized on a national scale when President Trump signed the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018. This is the widespread cultivation of industrial hemp, the non-intoxicating form of cannabis grown for fiber, cloth, oil, food and other purposes. Hemp grows to 13 feet in 100 days, making it one of the fastest CO2-to-biomass conversion tools available. Industrial hemp has been proven to absorb more CO2 per hectare than any forest or commercial crop, making it the ideal carbon sink. It can be grown on a wide scale on nutrient poor soils with very small amounts of water and no fertilizers.”

Media:

• Sponsoring Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) Press Release
  
• Sponsoring Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) Dear Colleague Letter
  
• Kight on Cannabis Blog (In Favor)
  
• Marijuana Moment
  
• LA Progressive (Context)
  
• Countable - 2018 Farm Bill (Context)