A bipartisan coalition of congressional lawmakers sent a letter to leaders. Asking them to include provisions protecting all state, territory, and tribal marijuana programs. Because they want federal protections from government interference in the upcoming spending legislation.

The letter is led by Congressional Cannabis Caucus Co-Chairs Reps. Earl Blumenauer and Barbara Lee, along with Reps. Tom McClintock and Eleanor Holmes Norton. The letter brings awareness to the growing number of states that have legalized cannabis for medical and recreational use. Therefore, it argues that the Department of Justice should be barred from enforcing the prohibition against citizens who comply with those local policies.

Ballot initiatives decided many of the laws in these states. Lawmakers believe that the federal government should not interfere with the legal programs and the will of Americans.

Specifics in the Letter

The group is asking for federal protections for states with legal marijuana programs. They sent a letter to leaders in the House Appropriations subcommittee. Asking them to include a rider in the base bill of the spending legislation; that would prevent the Justice Department from using its funds to intervene in legal, adult-use marijuana markets. They also noted that an existing amendment to protect medical cannabis states should be renewed, as it has every year since 2014.

In the past, the House approved spending bills with broader language. But because they were not attached to the base bill, they had to be introduced and voted on as amendments. Lawmakers would like to avoid this by including the protections from the very state when the measure is first introduced.

The House and Senate

Currently, to date, the Senate has not followed suit in approving the broad rider. The adult-use protections have not made it into the final legislation.

At this point, both chambers have included the narrower protections focusing on medical cannabis in the base bill. This is a sign of the non-controversial nature of the policy.

Unlike past language in previous years, this year the House legislators are requesting that the provisions do not explicitly list the states and territories with medical or recreational cannabis laws that would benefit from the protection.

The letter also asks lawmakers to include a new section specifying that the Justice Department cannot use its funds to prevent Indian tribes from enacting or implementing marijuana legalization. For the past two years, the House has approved tribal-focused amendments.

If they adopt the requested language, it will most likely make it through the House as part of the large-scale funding legislation. Now that the Democrats also have a majority in the Senate, the provisions covering states with recreational laws have a greater chance of being incorporated into the final package.

Typically, in the past under GOP control only the medical cannabis protections made it through the Senate and into the final bill.

Federal Legalization

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that he wants a permanent solution for state marijuana protections and will soon release a bill to end federal cannabis probation.

“Our first goal is not to settle for just partial measures, even though that, obviously if we went to legalization, that would sort of be part of it,” he said. “We’re first going to try to get as large a piece of legislation as we can.”

This proposal may be attempted through budget reconciliation, by adding it to a larger must-pass package. This would allow them to avoid a filibuster requiring 60 votes. But not all Democrats are on board with recreational federal marijuana legalization. This could be a challenge for Schumer moving forward.

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