Hemp legalization should have no trouble making it to President Donald Trump’s desk, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell predicted during a tour of a Kentucky hemp processor.
“I’m optimistic that we’ll be able to finish the job,” McConnell told reporters Thursday at Louisville-based Sunstrand, which manufactures hemp composites such as insulation and boards.
McConnell steered hemp legalization through the Senate version of the bill.
The language in the Senate’s measure would take hemp off the Controlled Substances Act and give farmers nationwide the ability to grow hemp and use it for CBD extraction. The House must now agree to legalize hemp before the change can become law.
Brian Furnish, head of global production for Ananda Hemp of Cynthiana, Kentucky, attended the meeting with McConnell.
He told Hemp Industry Daily that the Republican senator from Kentucky doesn’t expect House members to oppose hemp legalization.
“We’re working with him to ensure that his language stays in the Farm Bill,” Furnish said.
Congress has until Sept. 30 to reauthorize the Farm Bill.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
