{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.paul.senate.gov/news-us-senators-attorney-general-sessions-reassure-hemp-industry-you-will-uphold-law/", "U.S. Senators to Attorney General Sessions: Reassure Hemp Industry You Will Uphold the Law", "2017-07-07", "2017", "2017-07", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Rand Paul", "P000603", "www.paul.senate.gov", "paul", "https://www.paul.senate.gov/news/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Recently, U.S. Senators Rand Paul (R-KY), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Al Franken (D-MN), and Michael Bennet (D-CO) urged Attorney General Jeff Sessions to address their constituents\u2019 concerns regarding the hemp industry\u2019s access to financial services by confirming the Department of Justice will respect Congress\u2019 recent actions on industrial hemp pilot programs.\n\nWhile the 2014 Farm Bill allowed state agriculture departments and universities to conduct industrial hemp research pilot programs in states that have authorized the growing and production of industrial hemp, including Kentucky, Oregon, Colorado, and Minnesota, the senators noted that some program participants \u201chave either had their personal and business accounts closed at financial institutions or are facing the possibility of losing them.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis situation,\u201d they continued, \u201cis evidently due to the uncertainty of the continued legal status of the industrial hemp industry, and because the funds contained in the accounts are associated with industrial hemp.\u201d\n\nThe members asked Attorney General Sessions to make it clear the Department of Justice will uphold the 2017 Consolidated Appropriations Act, which prevents the federal government from interfering with the cultivation, transportation, processing, sale, or use of industrial hemp as authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill, and not act against financial institutions that handle related funds.\n\nAs the senators stated, \u201cIndustrial hemp research and farming have opened up doors for students, farmers, and small businesses in our states. In fact, American-grown hemp is already being used in a number of products, including fibers in automobile panels, fuels, food, animal bedding, and soaps, lotions and oils.\u201d\n\nAttorney General Sessions\u2019 assurance that the Justice Department will abide by Congress\u2019 actions will provide stability and help enable pilot programs to reach their full academic and economic potential.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T21:54:49Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.paul.senate.gov/news-us-senators-attorney-general-sessions-reassure-hemp-industry-you-will-uphold-law/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.7899757474660873, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}