Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell doesn’t want hemp on the controlled substance list.
While in his home state of Kentucky, McConnell announced he will introduce a bill to legalize hemp as an “agricultural commodity.”
“I just had an opportunity to see some interesting and innovative products, some of which you see here on the table, made with Kentucky-grown hemp,” he said while speaking at Frankfort, Kentucky, on Monday. “Sunstrand, based in Louisville, contracts with farmers in Henry County to grow hemp that they process into a number of consumer products including home insulation.”
He continued: “Imagine, instead of pink fiberglass, we could use Kentucky grown, environmentally sustainable hemp to insulate our houses. This represents just one many uses that Kentuckians are finding for this versatile crop.”
McConnell clarified that hemp was different than its “illicit cousin.”
“So I will be introducing, when I go back to the Senate a week from Monday, a bipartisan bill in the Senate to continue to support this important Kentucky industry; it will be the Hemp Farm Act of 2018. What will it do?” he said. “First and foremost, this bill will finally legalize hemp, legalize hemp as an agricultural commodity and remove it from list of controlled substances.”
In the past, McConnell has helped create new federal and state legal permissions for hemp, as well as helped shepherd hemp into the 2014 farm bill.
CNN’s David Siegel contributed to this report.