. One of her specific lobbying issues cited in 2023 is Tester and Braun’s Industrial Hemp Act.
Between the summer of 2022 and this spring, Tester’s staffers said the bill went through at least five revisions, and that his and Braun’s offices solicited feedback from numerous stakeholders, including the USDA, the National Sheriffs’ Association, the Montana Farmers Union and the Montana Department of Agriculture.
“They were relatively minor in the bigger picture of what the thing was trying to accomplish,” he said. “It’s a few little details about how it was going to be implemented.” Tweet, the hemp company co-founder, said the idea that the bill stemmed from a secretive process “is not true in the slightest,” pointing to the fact that she and others worked on it for 18 months with Tester’s office and “held several calls” with other fellow stakeholders “to garner as much input as impossible.”
“This bill has the power to unlock the full potential of industrial hemp for fiber and grain, creating a host of economic and environmental benefits for our farmers and our planet,” she said.