House Passes Landmark Marijuana Legalization Bill, Heads to Senate
The City of Los Angeles Department of Cannabis Regulation announced that The House passed legislation April 1, that would legalize marijuana nationwide, eliminating criminal penalties for anyone who manufactures, distributes or possesses the substance.
Lawmakers approved the measure 220-204. Republicans Tom McClintock of California and Matt Gaetz and Brian Mast of Florida voted in favor of the legislation, while Democrats Chris Pappas of New Hampshire and Henry Cueller of Texas voted against it.
The legislation, titled the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, passed in the House last year, but did not move forward in the Senate. The Bill would decriminalize marijuana at the federal level and it would establish procedures for expunging previous convictions from people’s records and impose a tax on the sale of cannabis products.
“The tax would begin at 5% and eventually increase to 8%. Funding raised through the tax would go toward a fund to provide job training, mentoring, substance-use treatment, legal aid, re-entry services and youth recreation programs. It would also provide loans to help small businesses in the cannabis industry that are “owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals,” a summary of the bill read.
The bill now, once again, will head to the Senate.
Democrats would need all of their members and 10 Republicans to overcome a 60-vote hurdle needed to advance to a final vote.
Details: www.congress.gov/bill/ Marijuana-Legalization-Bill
President Biden Signed Rep. Barragán’s Bill Into Law at White House
Washington D.C. — Congresswoman Nanette Barragán March 18, was at the White House, in the Oval Office, as President Joseph R. Biden signed her John Lewis National Institutes on Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Endowment Revitalization Act into law.
In April 2021, the Congresswoman’s bill passed the House of Representatives on voice vote. Before that, in March 2021, the Senate version of her bill, led by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), passed by unanimous consent. The bill, now law, will increase investments into schools conducting critical minority health and health disparities research and diversity in the scientific workforce.
The research endowment program at the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities or NIMHD provides funding to the endowments of academic institutions across the country, such as Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in California’s 44th Congressional District. This bill will once again allow for current and former NIMHD or Health Resources and Services Administration Centers of Excellence to receive research endowment funding.