Hemp Hemp Hooray: Iowa Hemp Act Passes Ways & Means Committee In Unanimous 25 – 0 Vote!

 

Iowa Hemp Act passes Ways & Means Committee – On Wednesday, March 27, 2019, the Iowa House Ways & Means Committee amended and passed House File 733 as amended by a unanimous 25-aye vote. House File 733 creates an Iowa Hemp Act that allows for the production and processing of industrial hemp which has a THC content of less than 0.3% by dry weight basis.

The ability to create an Iowa Hemp Act program is based on the federal 2018 Federal Farm Bill which authorizes states to assume primary regulatory authority over the production of hemp by submitting a state plan for approval by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). USDA has 60 days to approve, disapprove, or amend the plan and provides that state regulations may be more but not less stringent than the federal regulations. The bill was amended by the Ways & Means Committee to provide the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) with the primary role of implementing and operating the Iowa Hemp program rather than Department of Public Safety (DPS) as originally specified in HF 733. The Committee also tweaked the fee aspect of the bill to permit additional inspection fee for different varieties of hemp.

The bill creates a hemp fund into which annual hemp license fees and pre-harvest inspection fees are deposited. Hemp funds may include money in addition to fees from public and private sources. Using the fund, IDALS will administer the state hemp program. The measure specifies that hemp licensee must pay for annual hemp licenses and actual costs of hemp inspections. Fees collected pursuant to this section are to be deposited into a state hemp fund. The hemp license fee varies on a number of acres grown with:

(a) $500 plus $5 an acre for each site less than 5 acres,

(b) $750 plus $5 an acre for each site more than 5-acres but not more than 10-acres, and

(c) $1,000 plus $5 for more than 10 acres an acre up to 40-acres.

 

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