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Congress in the weeds as members hash it out over cannabis reform

The Blade is a sponsor of the National Cannabis Festival, which organized the event

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U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Members of Congress from both parties outlined paths to successful marijuana regulatory reform during Thursday’s National Cannabis Policy Summit Congressional Forum in the Congressional Auditorium of the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), the Senate’s top Democrat, earned a round of applause after proclaiming himself “proud to be the first Majority Leader ever to say it is time to end the federal prohibition on cannabis.”

“Until federal cannabis reform is the law of the land, I believe in my bones that we will get there one day soon,” Schumer said.

He and the other members present were hopeful that these goals are within reach for this Congress.

U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) told the audience he was hopeful about passage of the Safe Banking Act, which would prohibit federal banking regulators from punishing financial institutions that provide services to legitimate cannabis related businesses.

Merkley noted the bill was supported by nearly all of the Senate Democratic caucus and nine Republicans when it was last introduced in 2021. “I think there’s a real path to getting it done,” he said.

As more states have begun to pass legislation legalizing cannabis for medicinal use, in tandem with the dramatic shift toward a more favorable public opinion of cannabis use, legislators have learned they will not suffer political consequences for backing these proposals, Merkley said.

“No senator has seen this [political position] be a negative” electorally, he said. “It’s been a positive in race after race.”

Republican U.S. Rep. David Joyce (Ohio), a co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, recounted how attitudes about cannabis among federal lawmakers have evolved quickly in the past few years.

In 2015, Joyce said he got blowback from then-Republican House Speaker John Boehner for his support of the Veterans Equal Access Act, a measure that would have allowed the Department of Veterans Affairs to facilitate patients’ access to cannabis in accordance with the corresponding state laws governing its use.

“And look at him now,” Joyce said of Boehner, who just four years later had become a lobbyist for the cannabis industry.

Joyce was joined on stage by Democratic U.S. Sen John Hickenlooper (Colo.), a member of the Senate’s Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee and chair of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, both among the most powerful in Congress.

The two lawmakers detailed their support for the Preparing Regulators Effectively for a Post-Prohibition Adult-Use Regulated Environment (PREPARE) Act, which was introduced last week by Joyce and Democratic House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York.

The legislation would direct U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to create and manage a commission responsible for issuing recommendations on a regulatory framework for cannabis modeled after that which is in place for alcohol.

Joyce took a swipe at President Joe Biden, characterizing his support for cannabis regulatory reform as tepid and suggesting the president’s stance on the issues might be a factor of age.

The congressman added that the PREPARE Act would benefit the administration by getting “all the agencies to the table to hash out” matters like “what their agreements will be,” and “what their redlines are.”

Otherwise, “the government would have no idea how to deal with” legalization, Joyce said.

As with alcohol, Hickenlooper said it will be important to ensure the federal government is “not trying to market marijuana to get more revenue from taxes,” though both he and Joyce touted the potential for windfall tax revenues that could be reinvested for the benefit of communities across the country.

“I think the more and more states that legalize marijuana, that see people working in the industry, see how it’s contributing to the economy…that changes public opinion, which makes it easier for us as lawmakers,” said U.S. Sen. Jackie Rosen.

“So, I think as more and more states legalize cannabis we will have the opportunity to have these conversations in a different way to move the ball forward,” said the congresswoman, who is a member of the Senate’s Commerce and Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committees.

Rosen and Merkley (D-Ore.) discussed the inequities perpetuated on the American public by the federal cannabis regulatory regime.

Merkley thanked Biden for “stepping forward” to pardon inmates who were incarcerated for federal cannabis crimes, while Rosen discussed the importance of facilitating safe access to banking services for legitimate cannabis businesses, noting the Small Business Committee’s work connecting minority owned firms to key support services. “It matters,” she said. “It’s about equity and inclusion.”

Remarks delivered by U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) via a prerecorded video touched on similar themes. The federal government’s goal, she said, must be “not only end the War on Drugs but also invest in the communities affected by it.”

“Federal cannabis prohibition has disproportionately impacted people of color,” Lee said, noting the data indicating that while Black and white Americans use marijuana at roughly the same rates, Black people are four times more likely to be arrested for possession.

“There are so many barriers preventing people of color from opening their own businesses,” Lee said. “We need to fully de-schedule cannabis, reinvest in communities of color, and ensure small and minority-owned businesses have the opportunity to participate in this market.”

The Washington Blade is a sponsor of the National Cannabis Festival, the organizer behind Thursday’s Congressional Forum. Tickets are still available for the Festival, which will feature an all-day concert along with “exhibitors, education pavilions, munchies zone, sponsored lounges and more.”

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Congress

Garcia confronts Noem over gay asylum seeker ‘forcibly removed’ to El Salvador

Andry Hernández Romero is makeup artist from Venezuela

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Andry Hernández Romero (photo credit: Immigrant Defenders Law Center)

California Congressman Robert Garcia on Wednesday asked Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem about the well-being of a gay asylum seeker from Venezuela who the U.S. “forcibly removed” to El Salvador.

The gay Democrat during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing asked Noem whether Andry Hernández Romero is “alive” and whether “we can check and do a wellness check on him.”

“This individual is in El Salvador, and the appeal would be best made to the president and to the government of El Salvador,” Noem told Garcia.

The Trump-Vance administration in March “forcibly removed” Hernández, who asked for asylum because of persecution he suffered due to his sexual orientation and political beliefs, and other Venezuelans from the U.S. and sent them to El Salvador.

The White House on Feb. 20 designated Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang, as an “international terrorist organization.” President Donald Trump on March 15 invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which the Associated Press notes allows the U.S. to deport “noncitizens without any legal recourse.”

Alvaro M. Huerta, director of litigation and advocacy for the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, a Los Angeles-based organization that represents Hernández, said officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection claimed their client is a Tren de Aragua member because of his tattoos.

The Washington Blade on April 17 reported Hernández was sent to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, a maximum-security prison known by the Spanish acronym CECOT.

Garcia, along with U.S. Reps. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.), Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.), and Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) last month met with U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador William Duncan and embassy staffers in San Salvador, the Salvadoran capital. The lawmakers did not visit CECOT, but Garcia told the Blade that the embassy agreed to ask the Salvadoran government to “see how (Hernández) is doing and to make sure he’s alive.”

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HRC: GOP reconciliation bill would imperil critical LGBTQ-specific programs

Republicans on House Ways and Means Committee released full text Monday

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(Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

The cuts to federal spending in a reconciliation proposal published on Monday by the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Republican majority could jeopardize critical programs that disproportionately serve LGBTQ communities, the Human Rights Campaign warned.

As lawmakers were set to convene for a markup on Tuesday, the country’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group said in a press release that the bill would “pose significant threats” particularly for those that might be “low-income, living with HIV, or facing food insecurity.”

HRC added that conservative members have added provisions that would (1) prohibit the use of federal Medicaid and CHIP funding to support guideline-directed, medically necessary healthcare interventions for transgender youth (2) prevent “states from defining that care as ‘essential health benefits’ for transgender people of all ages,” and (3) block funding for health providers like Planned Parenthood that “have worked diligently to create welcoming, affirming environments for the LGBTQ+ community and that are committed to reproductive freedom and providing care to all who need it.”

Since reconciliation is carved out as an exemption to the Senate filibuster, which typically requires a 60-vote threshold for legislation to pass, Republicans would need only a simple majority in the upper chamber.

In a statement, HRC President Kelley Robinson said:People in this country have been clear — they want policies and solutions that make life better and expand access to the American Dream. Instead, anti-equality lawmakers drafted a handout for billionaires built on the backs of hardworking people — with devastating consequences for the LGBTQ+ community.

“Proposed cuts to programs like Medicaid and SNAP or resources like Planned Parenthood clinics, all of which  disproportionately support LGBTQ+ Americans, are not just numbers on a page. They would mean families forced to choose between seeing a doctor and paying the rent. They would mean people forced to skip check ups and testing. They would mean kids missing meals.

“And attempts to load up the bill with attacks on access to health care for transgender youth drive home the point that this bill is not about the American people, but inflicting harm for political gain. This country deserves better, and we’re going to fight for it.”

Per HRC’s press release, the Congressional Budget Office estimates the Republican led proposal “could kick 13.7 million people off of Medicaid,” a program that covers “a disproportionate share of low-income LGBTQ+ people, including 21 percent of transgender individuals and 40 percent of people living with HIV.”

Along with the threat of withholding access to medicines for individual patients living with HIV, the proposed cuts could also undermine public health goals with respect to America’s decades-long effort to combat the epidemic, along with the work of community health centers that provide “services like mental health support, gender-affirming care, and STI testing.”

The group notes that LGBTQ populations — especially women, younger individuals, and LGBTQ people of color — tend to experience higher rates of food insecurity, the group noted, which means they are likely to suffer greater harm from the “stricter eligibility requirements, work mandates, and benefit reductions” targeting the SNAP program.

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Top Congressional Democrats reintroduce Equality Act on Trump’s 100th day in office

Legislation would codify federal LGBTQ-inclusive non-discrimination protections

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Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and Democratic members reintroduce the Equality Act, April 29 2025 (Washington Blade photo by Christopher Kane)

In a unified display of support for LGBTQ rights on President Donald Trump’s 100th day in office, congressional Democrats, including leadership from the U.S. House and U.S. Senate, reintroduced the Equality Act on Tuesday.

The legislation, which would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, codifying these protections into federal law in areas from jury service to housing and employment, faces an unlikely path to passage amid Republican control of both chambers of Congress along with the White House.

Speaking at a press conference on the grass across the drive from the Senate steps were Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (Mass.), U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), who is the first out LGBTQ U.S. Senator, U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (Calif.), who is gay and chairs the Congressional Equality Caucus, U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas (N.H.), who is gay and is running for the U.S. Senate, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (N.J.), and U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (Ore.).

Also in attendance were U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride (Del.), who is the first transgender member of Congress, U.S. Rep. Dina Titus (Nev.), U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley (Ill.), and representatives from LGBTQ advocacy groups including the Human Rights Campaign and Advocates 4 Trans Equality.

Responding to a question from the Washington Blade on the decision to reintroduce the bill as Trump marks the hundredth day of his second term, Takano said, “I don’t know that there was a conscious decision,” but “it’s a beautiful day to stand up for equality. And, you know, I think the president is clearly hitting a wall that Americans are saying, many Americans are saying, ‘we didn’t vote for this.'”

A Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll released Sunday showed Trump’s approval rating in decline amid signs of major opposition to his agenda.

“Many Americans never voted for this, but many Americans, I mean, it’s a great day to remind them what is in the core of what is the right side of history, a more perfect union. This is the march for a more perfect union. That’s what most Americans believe in. And it’s a great day on this 100th day to remind our administration what the right side of history is.”

Merkley, when asked about the prospect of getting enough Republicans on board with the Equality Act to pass the measure, noted that, “If you can be against discrimination in employment, you can be against discrimination in financial contracts, you can be against discrimination in mortgages, in jury duty, you can be against discrimination in public accommodations and housing, and so we’re going to continue to remind our colleagues that discrimination is wrong.”

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which was sponsored by Merkley, was passed by the Senate in 2013 but languished in the House. The bill was ultimately broadened to become the Equality Act.

“As Speaker Nancy Pelosi has always taught me,” Takano added, “public sentiment is everything. Now is the moment to bring greater understanding and greater momentum, because, really, the Congress is a reflection of the people.”

“While we’re in a different place right this minute” compared to 2019 and 2021 when the Equality Act was passed by the House, Pelosi said she believes “there is an opportunity for corporate America to weigh in” and lobby the Senate to convince members of the need to enshrine federal anti-discrimination protections into law “so that people can fully participate.”

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