Tag: republicans

GOP-Led Congressional Panel Demands Investigation On Biden’s Marijuana Rescheduling Process, Citing ‘Deviations’ And ‘Mental Health Hazards’

A key GOP-led House committee is asking for a review of the cannabis rescheduling recommendation issued under the Biden administration, expressing concerns about “deviations” from a prior review process as well as the “mental health hazards of regular use of high-potency marijuana.”

In a report attached to a large-scale spending bill for the 2026 fiscal year, the House Appropriations Committee included several sections focused on marijuana and hemp—while also encouraging further research into the therapeutic potential of psychedelics. The panel is set to vote on the bill and report language on Wednesday.

For cannabis advocates and stakeholders, however, the report’s marijuana scheduling language is troubling, with members stating that they’re “concerned about deviations from established drug scheduling evaluation standards in the [Food and Drug Administration, or FDA] 2023 marijuana scheduling review.”

Under former President Joe Biden, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommended to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) that cannabis be moved from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). That process has since stalled out amid legal challenges from witnesses in DEA administrative hearing proceedings.

“The Committee directs the HHS Inspector General to complete a report on the 2023 marijuana scheduling review including but not limited to: deviations from the established five-factor currently accepted medical use test, justification for a new, two-factor currently accepted medical use test and whether this will be the standard for all future reviews, use of a limited number of hand-selected comparator substances, and inclusion of research results that are not statistically significant or inconclusive,” the report section says.

The flagged issues largely echo concerns raised by prohibitionist organizations such as Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM). And the language is consistent with an earlier version of the agriculture spending legislation that advanced though committee but was not ultimately enacted last session.

“The Committee is concerned about reports of the mental health hazards of regular use of high-potency marijuana, particularly among adolescents,” it says. “The Committee encourages the FDA to support research on high-potency marijuana and its effects on the adolescent brain, specifically regarding addiction and mental illness such as schizophrenia or psychosis.”

“Marijuana Rescheduling.—The Committee is concerned about deviations from established drug scheduling evaluation standards in the FDA 2023 marijuana scheduling review. The Committee directs the HHS Inspector General to complete a report on the 2023 marijuana scheduling review including but not limited to: deviations from the established five-factor currently accepted medical use test, justification for a new, two-factor currently accepted medical use test and whether this will be the standard for all future reviews, use of a limited number of hand-selected comparator substances, and inclusion of research results that are not statistically significant or inconclusive. The Committee is concerned about reports of the mental health hazards of regular use of high-potency marijuana, particularly among adolescents. The Committee encourages the FDA to support research on high-potency marijuana and its effects on the adolescent brain, specifically regarding addiction and mental illness such as schizophrenia or psychosis.”

Elsewhere in the report, the panel also talked about their problem with “the proliferation of products marketed in violation of the [Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA)], including products containing derivatives of the cannabis plant,” which is consistent with provisions of the underlying bill that would ban all hemp items containing “quantifiable” amounts of THC.

“The Committee is aware that non-FFDCA-compliant products pose potential health and safety risks to consumers through misleading, unsubstantiated, and false claims that cannabis and cannabis derivatives can treat serious and life-threatening diseases and conditions, including COVID–19 and cancer,” the report says. “Such products may also be contaminated with harmful substances.”

“The Committee recognizes FDA’s use of existing authorities to undertake cannabis-related efforts, including research, requests for data, consumer education, issuance of guidance and policy around cannabis-based drug product development, and enforcement against wrongdoers,” it continues. “The Committee expects FDA to continue and increase these efforts given the proliferation of non-FFDCA-compliant, cannabis-containing products and the risks they pose to public health.”

“Cannabidiol Oil Enforcement.—The Committee is concerned about the proliferation of products marketed in violation of the FFDCA, including products containing derivatives of the cannabis plant. The Committee is aware that non-FFDCA-compliant products pose potential health and safety risks to consumers through misleading, unsubstantiated, and false claims that cannabis and cannabis derivatives can treat serious and life-threatening diseases and conditions, including COVID–19 and cancer. Such products may also be contaminated with harmful substances. The Committee recognizes FDA’s use of existing authorities to undertake cannabis-related efforts, including research, requests for data, consumer education, issuance of guidance and policy around cannabis-based drug product development, and enforcement against wrongdoers. The Committee expects FDA to continue and increase these efforts given the proliferation of non-FFDCA-compliant, cannabis-containing products and the risks they pose to public health. The Committee also expects FDA to take enforcement action against the manufacturers of any cannabis products marketed with unlawful therapeutic claims to preserve the integrity of the drug development and approval processes, which ensures that products, including cannabis-containing products, marketed as drugs have undergone a rigorous scientific evaluation to ensure that they are safe, pure, potent, and effective for the diseases and conditions they claim to treat. It is also imperative that FDA continue to exercise its existing authorities to preserve incentives to invest in robust clinical study of cannabis so its therapeutic value can be better understood.”

The report further states that members expect FDA to “take enforcement action against the manufacturers of any cannabis products marketed with unlawful therapeutic claims to preserve the integrity of the drug development and approval processes, which ensures that products, including cannabis-containing products, marketed as drugs have undergone a rigorous scientific evaluation to ensure that they are safe, pure, potent, and effective for the diseases and conditions they claim to treat.”

“It is also imperative that FDA continue to exercise its existing authorities to preserve incentives to invest in robust clinical study of cannabis so its therapeutic value can be better understood,” the committee said.

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies advanced the underlying bill last week, stirring controversy over provisions to prohibit cannabis products containing any “quantifiable” amount of THC or “any other cannabinoids that have similar effects (or are marketed to have similar effects) on humans or animals” as THC.

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Belated Republican Objections to the One Big Beautiful Bill Glide Over Its Blatant Fiscal Irresponsibility

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which the House of Representatives narrowly approved early in the morning on Thursday, May 22, lives up to its name in at least one respect: It is big, weighing in at 1,037 pages and nearly 200,000 words. Since the bill’s final text was not available until 10:40 p.m. on Wednesday, about eight hours before it passed by a single-vote margin shortly before 7 a.m. the next day, it would not be surprising if bleary-eyed legislators overlooked some of its nuances in their hurry to deliver the package that President Donald Trump demanded. As Reason‘s Liz Wolfe notes, at least two Republicans—Reps. Mike Flood (R–Neb.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R–Ga.)—have publicly admitted as much, saying they missed objectionable parts of the bill when they voted for it.

If Flood and Greene had voted no, it would have been enough to change the outcome. Furthermore, it seems safe to assume that at least some of their colleagues had similar regrets but are too embarrassed to admit that they failed to exercise the minimum diligence that should be expected from members of Congress. But the complaints from Flood and Greene are notable for another reason: They have nothing to do with the bill’s blatant fiscal irresponsibility, the main flaw highlighted by critics such as Rep. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.), Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.), and Elon Musk, who on Tuesday condemned “this massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill” as “a disgusting abomination.”

That much was clear prior to the House vote. As Reason‘s Eric Boehm noted the day before Flood and Greene gave their crucial assent to the bill, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that it would add $2.3 trillion to the national debt over 10 years—an estimate that the CBO upped to $2.4 trillion this week. Boehm added that “other assessments of the bill” by the Yale Budget Lab (originally published on May 16) and the Penn Wharton Budget Project (published three days later) estimated that it would add “more than $3 trillion” to the debt.

Those are low-ball estimates, based on the unrealistic assumption that Congress will allow Trump-favored tax cuts to lapse toward the end of that period. If “temporary provisions in the bill are made permanent,” Boehm reported, the Yale Budget Lab estimated that it would trigger $5 trillion in new borrowing.

The national debt currently exceeds $35 trillion, including about $29 trillion in debt held by the public, which is about the size of the entire U.S. economy. In January, the CBO projected that publicly held debt would hit 119 percent of GDP by 2035. Two months later, Trump promised to do something about that. “In the near future,” he told Congress, “I want to do what has not been done in 24 years—balance the federal budget. We’re gonna balance it.” But the glaring gap between that promise and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act did not faze Flood or Greene, whose concerns are much narrower.

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Key GOP Congressmen, Including Pro-Marijuana Legalization Member, Defend Effort to Ban Consumable Hemp Products

Key GOP congressional lawmakers—including one member who supports marijuana legalization—don’t seem especially concerned about provisions in a new spending bill that would put much of the hemp industry in jeopardy by banning most consumable products derived from the plant.

In interviews with Marijuana Moment, Congressional Cannabis Caucus co-chair Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH) and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glen Thompson (R-PA), as well as Rep. Lou Correa (D-CA), weighed in on the hemp language in the large-scale bill that cleared the the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies on Thursday.

Under the measure, hemp would be redefined under federal statute in a way that would prohibit cannabis products containing any “quantifiable” amount of THC or “any other cannabinoids that have similar effects (or are marketed to have similar effects) on humans or animals” as THC.

While Joyce backs legalizing and regulating cannabis for adult use, he said the language from the 2018 Farm Bill that federally legalized hemp and its derivatives “has been the stepping stone for the gas station delivery of intoxicants, whether that’s hemp or chemically manufactured [products] or whatever other shit it is that they sell at gas stations.”

“And there’s no age limit on it. So you’re handcuffing the regular cannabis industry that has strict standards that they have to meet everywhere, and yet this industry has flourished,” he said, adding that problems with the current law have been “exacerbated by people because there are some allegations that [intoxicating hemp products are] cannabis. It’s not hemp anymore.”

The congressman also seemed to endorse a push in Ohio to make it so intoxicating hemp products could only be sold to adults at licensed marijuana dispensaries. He said he told Gov. Mike DeWine (R) that, regardless of his views on the issue, the problem is the “gas station stuff that the kids are getting that all these people are up in arms about.”

That said, Joyce said while he does feel the 2018 Farm Bill’s hemp provisions included a “loophole” that’s been exploited, he hasn’t read the text of the latest legislation yet.

“I’m all for regulating the industry… It has to be regulated so that only adults are getting it,” he said.

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GOP Congressional Committee Proposes Ban On Hemp Products With THC That Advocates Say Would Have ‘Devastating’ Impact On Industry

A GOP-led House committee has unveiled a spending bill that contains provisions that hemp stakeholders say would devastate the industry, prohibiting most consumable cannabinoid products that were federally legalized during the first Trump administration.

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies published the text of the legislation covering fiscal year 2026 just one day ahead of a scheduled Thursday markup.

The 138-page bill covers a wide range of issues, but for the hemp industry, there’s a section of particular concern that would redefine hemp under federal statute in a way that would prohibit cannabis products containing any “quantifiable” amount of THC or “any other cannabinoids that have similar effects (or are marketed to have similar effects) on humans or animals” as THC.

That would effectively eliminate the most commonly marketed hemp products within the industry, as even non-intoxicating CBD items that are sold across the country typically contain trace amounts of THC. Under current law, those products are allowed if they contain no more than 0.3 percent THC by dry weight.

But the proposed policy being taken up by the subcommittee helmed by anti-marijuana Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) would drastically change that. It would instead maintain the legal status of “industrial hemp” under a revised definition that allows for the cultivation and sale of hemp grown for fiber, whole grain, oil, cake, nut, hull, microgreens or “other edible hemp leaf products intended for human consumption.”

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Rep. Jasmine Crockett Raises Eyebrows Online After Making a Shocking Claim About What Republicans Think About Her

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) went viral again last week after making a stunning claim about Republicans she meets in person.

As TGP readers know, Crockett is regularly roasted online by the right for her numerous bizarre and racist statements, radical positions, and violent behavior. One would think that Republicans not on social media would have a similar negative view.

But during an interview last week with disgraced former CNN hack Jim Acosta, Crockett essentially said that the Internet is not real life and further raised eyebrows after making this surprising remark:

“Republicans poll all the time, and I have no idea what is happening in their polling, but I can tell you that they approach me as they see me out and say, ‘Hey, I just wanted to let you know that I really like you.’”

Crockett went on to say that Republicans also tell her they believe she is fighting for the people and doing “what is best for all of us.” She concluded that this is all scary for Republicans.

Upon seeing her remarks, conservatives were understandably dumbfounded and extremely skeptical.

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If Only Ukraine-Loving Senate Republicans Put Americans First For Once

Senate Republicans and their majority leader are Johnny-on-the-spot when it comes to punishing Russia with sanctions after bad Vlad Putin and crew upped their missile strikes against Ukraine. Political strongmen tend to get a little testy when they suspect the countries they’re attacking of trying to blow them up.  As Axios reported earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., was “ready to move on a popular, bipartisan sanctions bill if Russia won’t come to the table in good faith” on a peace deal. 

“Senate Republicans are seizing on President Trump’s growing frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin to argue the time to impose fresh sanctions on Russia is now,” the news outlet reported. Axios apparently carpooled with the rest of the corporate news gang on the “angry” “frustration” talking points expressway.

Senate Republicans are mad as hell, and they’re not going to take it anymore.

Tough-talking Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is buddying up with Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., on an economic sanctions bill aimed at bringing Russia to the negotiating table. Graham says there’s a “new sheriff in town. The old playbook won’t work this time.”  

But the old playbook remains sadly in fashion in so many ways in Washington, D.C. 

Wouldn’t it be swell if Senate Republicans displayed the same level of passion and urgency when it comes to cutting taxes, shrinking government, and protecting our borders? While a lot of Americans agree with Trump that “crazy” Putin may be “playing with fire,” they would like to see their representatives in Washington, D.C., take some interest in pressing matters at home.

Whatever you think of President Trump’s “One, Big, Beautiful Bill,” and the House-passed reconciliation package as it stands is colossal, it does deliver on key policy issues Americans overwhelmingly support. Topping that list is the huge provision that locks in the wildly popular tax cuts Trump signed in his first term. When the clock strikes 2026, the law preventing the IRS from grabbing more of your hard-earned money turns back into a pumpkin without action from Congress. 

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Ex-advisor to Nancy Mace said congresswoman asked him to blackmail fiancé she accused of assault

A former political consultant and advisor to Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said in a sworn deposition that the congresswoman asked him to “blackmail” her fiancé to obtain ownership of two properties they jointly owned, using nude pictures of women she had discovered on his phone as leverage. 

The deposition adds a new twist to the lowcountry congresswoman’s very public accusations against her now ex-fiancé. Mace alleged that he took nude photographs of her and other women without consent.  

Mace accused her ex-fiancé and three other men in February of physical abuse and recording sex acts with her and others without their consent in a House floor speech, alleging that she found a trove of 10,000 videos and other photographic evidence. The ex-fiancé and the other men have strongly denied the allegations, including one man who is suing Mace over the accusations, Just the News previously reported. 

Mace’s former political strategist, Wesley Donehue, was deposed late last month by attorneys representing the ex-fiancé Patrick Bryant, who the congresswoman publicly alleged had “filmed women without their knowledge,” “filmed rape too,” and “stored these images for years.” Mace has even accused Bryant of engaging in a sex trafficking scheme.

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Gavin Newsom Supports Medicaid Changes — Why Don’t Republicans?

To cut federal spending, Republicans should join Newsom in reforming Medicaid.

It says something about congressional Republicans’ unwillingness to reduce Medicaid spending when many of them stand well to the left of Gavin Newsom — I repeat, Gavin Newsom — on the subject. The California governor, a Democrat, recently put forward proposals that would reduce program spending and enrollment.

Newsom won’t win awards for courage when it comes to reforming Medicaid; an ongoing budget crisis, as opposed to policy principle, prompted his volte-face. But the problems in California speak to the larger dynamic Washington will face if it doesn’t get serious about curbing Medicaid’s problems.

Restrictions on Undocumented Immigrants’ Coverage

In his revised budget, Newsom proposed freezing enrollment for undocumented immigrants. Children would be permitted to join the state’s Medicaid program, but no more adults could enroll. Those adults who remain enrolled would face a $100 monthly premium, beginning in 2027.

The Medicaid expansion to those in the country illegally has remained a source of controversy. For starters, that program came in billions of dollars over budget earlier this spring, forcing Newsom’s office to seek emergency bailouts for the Medicaid program. That bailout came after Newsom used a legally questionable accounting scam to have Washington help fund this program — even though federal tax dollars generally do not cover Medicaid coverage for the undocumented. The reconciliation bill before Congress would prevent future use of this accounting loophole by states, saving an estimated $34.6 billion over ten years.

Given that Newsom helped expand California’s Medicaid coverage to the undocumented to begin with, let’s not kid ourselves that he acted out of deep-seated principle in proposing an enrollment freeze and premium charges. Instead, his state faces yet another cash crunch, and the governor was forced to react. Which could well describe what will happen in Washington once foreign governments get tired of financing our ever-increasing debt.

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GOP Politician Who Threatened to Call In Russian-Ukrainian Hit Squad to Assassinate Rep. Paulina Luna – Gets Only 3 Years Prison Time!

Republican politician Robert Braddock III was sentenced to three years in prison after threatening to assassinate Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) with a Russian-Ukrainian hit squad.

Braddock was sentenced to three years in prison on Wednesday.

Braddock III was caught on an audio call talking about killing the “c*nt” to rid her from he race.

Matt Gaetz at OANN broke the story this week.

Matt Gaetz: Anna Paulina Luna, America’s Congresswoman from my beloved Florida. This military spouse, Air Force veteran, Maxim model, Turning Point influencer, badass Congresswoman is a force in the United States House of Representatives. She led the resolution to censure Adam Schiff. She’s a tireless advocate for fellow veterans in her Tampa Bay area district. She’s an excellent communicator and a thought leader in the strident House Freedom Caucus.

Did you also know there was a plot to assassinate her during her second and successful run for Congress? In 2021, during the Republican primary for Florida’s 13th Congressional district, candidate William Robert Braddock III, which, by the way, is just a delightful name, he threatened to have his opponent, Congresswoman Luna, assassinated. In a recorded call with a GOP activist, Braddock claimed that he would employ a Russian-Ukrainian hit squad to eliminate Luna if she continued to perform well in the polls because voters actually like her. If that sounds crazy to you, it sounded crazy to a lot of people. They said she was nuts. They said, I was nuts to endorse her. But then listen to the tape.

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GOP Senator Who Opposes Marijuana Legalization Complains About Federal Alcohol Guidelines Recommending Americans Drink Less

A GOP senator is complaining about pending revisions to federal guidelines that could recommend Americans drink less alcohol, even as he maintains his strong opposition to legalizing marijuana.

As the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) works to finalize updated dietary guidance for Americans, which will be partly informed by a study that some expect will recommend further reducing alcohol intake, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) is standing strong in defense of alcohol’s legal status.

“Wasting taxpayer dollars on studies to ban alcohol is exactly why [former President Joe Biden] and his cronies were voted out of the White House,” he told The Washington Reporter.

To be clear, the study that’s being carried out by SAMHSA’s Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking (ICCPUD) isn’t intended to impose a “ban” on alcohol. Rather, it’s meant to provide updated data on the potential risks of alcohol use, with findings that could be incorporated into the 2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which is not legally binding for consumers.

But Cotton’s comment reflects a policy disconnect that has long frustrated cannabis reform advocates who’ve long argued that, if alcohol is legal and regulated, it’s nonsensical to continue prohibiting marijuana, which many studies show is comparably safer and therapeutically beneficial for many patients.

If pursuing a ban on alcohol is a waste of taxpayer dollar, as the senator suggested, it’s notable he doesn’t feel similarly about the millions of dollars that continue to be spent arresting, prosecuting and incarcerating people over cannabis. But instead, Cotton has long maintained opposition to legalizing marijuana, including through an initiative to end cannabis prohibition that appeared on Arkansas’s 2022 ballot.

While he said in 2018 that he respected the will of voters in his state to legalize medical cannabis, he didn’t think the federal government should as much as decriminalize it. And in 2023, he sharply criticized then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for proposing criminal justice provisions he wanted to add to a bipartisan marijuana banking bill, claiming Schumer was supporting “letting drug traffickers out of prison.”

In any case, Cotton isn’t the first senator to take a conflicting position on alcohol and marijuana as it concerns the SAMHSA study. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), another staunch cannabis prohibition, made headlines in 2023 said that federal officials “can kiss my ass” if they decide to reduce the recommended maximum consumption of alcohol to two drinks per week.

“What is it with liberals and wanting to control every damn aspect of your life?” he said during an interview with Newsmax.

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