GOP Lawmakers Blast HHS, Biden for Plans to Loosen Marijuana Restrictions

HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra fielded questions on Wednesday about the agency’s plans to relax marijuana restrictions and about its opposition to Medicaid work requirements during a House of Representatives subcommittee hearing focused on the HHS budget for fiscal year (FY) 2025, which starts Oct. 1, 2024.

In speaking before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, Becerra also touted the administration’s plans to boost investment in research on women’s health through a “Shark Tank”-like initiative.

“Why is it that … when we hear about a heart attack our first image is of a man?” Becerra asked. “We want to change that,” he said, by investing in research on “diseases and conditions that have never gotten the attention they deserve.”

In addition to continuing basic research, the administration is proposing “a sprint” on women’s health under the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), which is housed under the NIH but reports to HHS.

“We’re going to turn to those innovators in the private sector who are having a hard time finding the investment capital they need, … and we’re going to try to go forward with some of these ideas that can actually hit the ground in the next few years,” Becerra said.

The FY 2025 budget aims to double current funding for the NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health. And on Monday, the president issued an executive order that aims to strengthen research on women’s health across federal agencies.

On a separate issue, Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) asked Becerra about the Biden administration’s plans to deschedule marijuana.

In August, HHS recommended to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) that marijuana should be rescheduled — moved from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug under the Controlled Substances Act. The DEA is currently reviewing that recommendation, according to the Congressional Research Service. (According to the Wall Street Journal and the Marijuana Moment, some DEA officials oppose the idea.)

Asked then whether descheduling marijuana would make it more available to young people, Becerra said marijuana is already “somewhat available” for medical or recreational purposes in more than half of the states in the country.

The federal law currently treats cannabis “differently than most states,” he added. “What the president asked us to do is examine where we are with cannabis today at the federal level.”

Edwards said he found documents the secretary shared with the subcommittee to be “very conflicting.” He cited lines from the document that referred to the “sobering impact of the behavioral health crisis on our nation’s youth.”

Edwards then asked whether the secretary was aware of studies that indicate people who use marijuana are more likely to develop temporary psychosis, hallucinations, paranoia, and long-lasting mental disorders, including schizophrenia. He also pointed to a 2021 study linking cannabis with higher levels of suicidal ideation.

Becerra said he was aware of a “number of reports and studies” and that the FDA would have taken such research into consideration during its assessment of cannabis.

“I have a real concern that in light of the mental health issues that we have today, that our federal government, [HHS], and President Biden are considering descheduling a substance that is far more potent today than it was when any of y’all ever used the drug,” Edwards said.

Later in the hearing, Rep. Andy Harris, MD (R-Md.), pointed out that Nora Volkow, MD, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, previously told the subcommittee that “recreational marijuana is just a bad idea,” citing similar concerns around young people and brain development.

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) — who stressed that he is not an advocate for recreational marijuana use and has never used any drug himself, apart from those prescribed to him — argued that “cigarette smoking is far more lethal and costly to the country and to human beings than is marijuana.”

Turning to a separate matter, Rep. Jake LaTurner (R-Kas.) asked Becerra about the agency’s continued opposition to work requirements in the Medicaid program. He pointed out that work requirements are a “core principle” for participants in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.

Becerra responded that the term “work requirements” does not appear anywhere in the Medicaid statute. Therefore, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has generally not favored such waiver requests.

“The state may want to try to do other things, which is fine, but our purpose is to make sure if you’re going to ask for a Medicaid dollar, that … when it is applied to that individual in your state, it improves the health of that individual,” Becerra said. “That’s what we look at … If certain waivers are denied, it’s because we’re not seeing results.”

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