A top aide to President Donald Trump may have close family ties to a hemp industry executive, but that has nothing to do with the White House\u2019s push to get Congress to delay the planned federal recriminalization of hemp THC products this week, an administration official says.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, several sources told Marijuana Moment that the president himself called a GOP senator this week to try to get him to back off a push to keep the scheduled ban on track for November.<\/p>\n
In June, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles\u2019s daughter Caroline married Bret Worley, who runs MC Nutraceuticals and other hemp companies. That has led to some accusations that the administration\u2019s advocacy on the hemp issue is intended to benefit those close to the administration.<\/p>\n
But Kush Desai, a White House spokesperson, told The New York Times for a story published on Wednesday that Worley\u2019s hemp business interests have no connection to the president\u2019s position on the issue. The administration\u2019s advocacy is in \u201cthe best interest of the American people\u201d and is aimed at helping veterans and other people who use hemp products for medical purposes.<\/p>\n
Desai added that when Wiles met with lawmakers last week to advocate for passage of a continuing resolution to keep the government funding\u2014which includes a provision to delay the scheduled hemp ban<\/a>\u2014she did not specifically mention the issue and\u00a0\u201chas never lobbied in favor of this or any other position on hemp with Capitol Hill,\u201d according to the Times report<\/a>.<\/p>\n Hemp derivatives with less than 0.3 percent delta-9 THC on a dry-weight basis were federally legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill that Trump signed during his first term in office. But late last year, the president signed new legislation containing provisions that will redefine hemp to make it so only products with 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container will remain legal after November 12.<\/p>\n On Sunday, leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee released the text of a continuing resolution to extend funding for federal agencies through December 11, past the end of the current fiscal year on September 30.<\/p>\n Included in the legislation are provisions that will also delay the planned prohibition on most hemp products until December 11\u2014although there is a carve-out that will allow the immediately recriminalization on November 12 of synthetic cannabinoids \u201cthat are not capable of being naturally produced by a Cannabis sativa L. plant.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe White House supports the provision in the temporary government funding bill, which is a modest four-week delay in implementation to allow for productive conversations to continue, that also allows the current limits to go into effect for some synthetic products permanently,\u201d a White House official told Marijuana Moment in an email.<\/p>\n Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) and several GOP cosponsors have filed an amendment that seeks to strip the provisions from the legislation, however, prompting pushback from the White House.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Trump administration opposes delaying government funding as well as important conversations over the pathway forward for the SAVE America Act,\u201d the White House spokesperson told Marijuana Moment, referring to separate legislation to mandate proof of citizenship and photo ID requirements to vote in federal elections that is also up for consideration in the Senate and that may be held up if Budd and other GOP senators insist on demanding a vote on the hemp amendment in order to allow expedited consideration of the funding legislation.<\/p>\n Three sources with knowledge of discussions around the issue told Marijuana Moment that Trump personally called Budd in an attempt to get him to back off the push to keep the hemp ban on track for November, but a spokesperson for the senator later clarified that there was \u201cnot an explicit ask made to Sen. Budd to drop the amendment\u201d by the president.<\/p>\n The spokesperson said that the hemp issue \u201ccertainly came up\u201d during what he described as a \u201cvery friendly\u201d discussion between Budd and Trump that also touched on number of other topics.<\/p>\n The White House spokesperson, meanwhile, did not directly address Marijuana Moment\u2019s request for comment on Trump\u2019s direct outreach to lawmakers on the hemp issue this week.<\/p>\n Budd, for his part, told The Times that he has \u201cmade it clear to the White House and my colleagues in the Senate that any action to delay\u201d the ban \u201cwill endanger both the wellness and safety of Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n Punchbowl News and NBC News both reported that White House Director of Legislative Affairs James Braid spoke about the issue during a \u201ctense\u201d lunch with Senate Republicans on Wednesday, committing that there would be no further extensions of the hemp ban\u2019s effective date if the current proposal is enacted.<\/p>\n