The House Small Business Committee is the first congressional committee to waive jurisdiction on the MORE Act since it was passed by the Judiciary Committee last November.

With the Small Business Committee boldly taking this action first, now is the time to push even harder. Put it this way: Two committees down, six to go. The following committees still need to take action: Members of the House Agriculture; Education and Labor; Energy and Commerce; Natural Resources; Oversight and Reform; and The Ways and Means. We know that we could win the votes in each of these committees should they be scheduled for a roll call, but that would take a long time, hence the call for them to waive. 

What exactly does this mean? When a piece of legislation is introduced, it gets assigned to one or multiple congressional committees, depending on what types of policy it impacts. Then, the members of each of these committees must vote in favor of it before it moves to the floor for a full chamber vote. By waiving their jurisdiction, the Small Business Committee is de-facto advancing the bill -- thus increasing the prospects that the MORE Act will receive a full House vote in the near future.

With public support for reforming marijuana laws at an all time high, key Congressional allies have formed the first-ever Congressional Cannabis Caucus to develop and promote sensible cannabis policy reform and work to ease the tension between federal and state cannabis laws. Never in modern history has there existed greater public support for ending the nation's nearly century-long experiment with marijuana prohibition. The continued criminalization of adult marijuana use is out-of-step with the views of adults throughout America, 93% of whom support medical marijuana (Quinnipiac, 2017) and 64 percent of whom endorse the outright legalization of recreational cannabis (Gallup, 2017). The official establishment of this Caucus represents our growing, bipartisan support in Congress.

What steps can you take to help?

• Tell your Congressional Representative to join the recently formed federal Cannabis Caucus by visiting: https://norml.org/action-center/item/tell-your-congressional-representative-join-the-cannabis-caucus
• Tell your members of Congress to sign on as cosponsors of the MORE Act by visiting: https://norml.org/action-center/item/federal-the-marijuana-opportunity-reinvestment-and-expungement-act or call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and tell your Representative that you want to see a floor vote on the MORE Act.
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