The Week Ahead (September 7, 2020)

On Tuesday, the USDA planned to reopen public comment on the Interim Final Rule establishing the federal Domestic Hemp Production Program.

Here’s a look at cannabis-related policymaking events on Cannabis Observer’s calendars in the week ahead. We’ve added an overall calendar to the Events screen which lists all the events that we’re tracking. Click on a calendar entry and then select the link in the description to quickly jump to any event details screen.

Monday September 7th

On Monday, most state and federal employees would enjoy a holiday from work in recognition of Labor Day.

Tuesday September 8th

On Tuesday at 10am PT, the weekly WSLCB Board Caucus was scheduled to recur.

[ Event Details ]
No agenda was available at publication time.
At the previous week’s Caucus, Board Member Russ Hauge reported that he’d “be gone the next couple of weeks” increasing the likelihood of cancellation of the three-member Board’s public meetings should either Chair Jane Rushford or Member Ollie Garrett be unable to participate.

On Tuesday, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) planned to reopen public comment on the Interim Final Rule (IFR) establishing the federal Domestic Hemp Production Program.

On Friday September 4th, the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) published an email announcement indicating the Department would be “reopening the comment period to the interim final rule that was published on Oct. 31, 2019, and established the U.S. Domestic Hemp Production Program. The reopening will provide an additional 30 days for interested persons to comment on the IFR.” The Federal Register provided access to a pre-published version of the notice prior to its official publication on Tuesday, although the notice itself was available at publication time.
- The USDA received 4,685 comments on the IFR during the initial comment period which ran through December 30, 2020.
- At the prompting of stakeholders, the Department extended the initial comment period for 30 days through January 29, 2020 and received an additional 31 comments.
- At publication time, the new docket was not available on Regulations.gov to submit comments online; here are all the ways to submit comments.
In the email announcement, staff noted particular subjects the Department was interested in receiving feedback on (links have been added to richer descriptions in the notice): “All stakeholders are invited to provide comments, especially those who were subject to the regulatory requirements of the IFR during the 2020 production cycle. The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is interested in all additional input for all aspects of the U.S. Domestic Hemp Production Program, and particularly interested in comments on the following topics:
The Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) received federal approval of its state hemp program earlier this year. At publication time, there were 170 hemp growers in Washington state.
Comments on federal hemp regulations must be received by Thursday October 8th.

Wednesday September 9th

On Wednesday at 10am PT, the WSLCB COVID Legal/Policy/Rules Meeting was scheduled to recur.

[ Event Details ]

The weekly WSLCB Executive Management Team (EMT) meeting was cancelled.

[ Event Details ]
The last 30 regularly scheduled EMT meetings have been cancelled. The EMT last convened on Wednesday February 12th.
During the July 16th caucus, Board Chair Jane Rushford said “I feel it's important that we bring [EMTs] back” (audio - 2m). At the August 4th caucus, Rushford said EMT meetings would be renewed in September and run "once a month" through the end of the year (audio - 3m).
It’s September.

Friday September 11th

On Friday at 10am PT, the WSLCB COVID Legal/Policy/Rules Meeting was scheduled to recur.

[ Event Details ]