As we all know the world of legislation framing in hemp and cannabis can be at the best elephantine.
Jonathan has spent a lot of time on the Hill, recently, lobbying for changes to the scheduling of industrial hemp.
And…we have to say, he was particularly positive in our conversation about the chances of seeing something practical in play, federally, by the end of 2018.
Describing McConnell as a, careful studious man, who has spent the last 4 years quietly looking at the issue, Miller thinks that an initial draft of the proposed Bill will appear in the next two weeks, if not beforehand.
Miller also says he hopes for a standalone bill to be passed by the end of the year and at the moment even a worst case scenario is, for once, a positive.
If the standalone can’t get through he believes amendments to the existing Farm Bill will get industrial hemp over the line so that federal legislation will at least begin to run in the same race as the rapidly moving state legislatures.
All very well timed if Trump’s trade war with China means soya bean production has to come down.
Immediately there’s an easy grow multiple use crop that’s easy on the environment and a demand that’s about to skyrocket.
We thank Jonathan for his time. Here’s a quick look at his bio and we’d suggest that in its reading we should be fairly well assured that with advocates like him on the hill industrial hemp production around the US is no longer a pipe dream.
A former statewide elected official turned “recovering politician,” Jonathan assists his broad client base – ranging from Fortune 500 firms, to aspiring entrepreneurs, to non-profit associations – in navigating complex local, state and federal government institutions through his counsel on legal, public policy, political and public relations matters. Jonathan leads teams of lawyers, lobbyists and economic development specialists in helping his clients win and retain government contracts and incentives, develop and execute public-private partnerships, and survive and transcend crisis management episodes.
In his law practice, Jonathan brings to bear for clients his experience from the top levels of state government (elected two-term State Treasurer and Finance Cabinet Secretary), politics (former state Democratic Party chair and prime-time speaker at the 2000 Democratic National Convention); and Capitol Hill (senior aide to a Vice President, a U.S. Secretary of Energy and a U.S. Congressman.)
Over the past four years, Jonathan has emerged as one of the nation’s leading advocates for the full legalization of industrial hemp, and upon leading successful lobbying efforts in Kentucky and Washington that laid the groundwork for the current hemp pilot program regime, Jonathan serves as trusted counsel to dozens of companies in the industrial hemp space, with his full-service complement of law partners offering client counsel on issues ranging from intellectual property to corporate transactions to FDA regulation. Jonathan helped lead the successful legal battle against the DEA’s 2014 efforts to ban the importation of hemp seeds for Kentucky pilot programs, and now serves as general counsel to the U.S. Hemp Farming and Business Roundtable, a leading national grass-tops organization committed to securing congressional passage of the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2017.
Read more about Jonathan and the FTB hemp practice at https://www.frostbrowntodd.com/professionals-693.html
Here’s Jonathan in his GC role for the Hemp Roundtable at Colorado’s NoCo last week
