SW Georgia News

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congressman Andrew Clyde (GA-09) has sent a letter to Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Anne Milgram seeking information on the ongoing marijuana reclassification formal rulemaking process. This follows Milgram's refusal to address questions regarding the rescheduling during a recent Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) budget hearing.

On May 7, Administrator Milgram appeared before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies to discuss the DEA’s budget requests for FY25. During the hearing, she repeatedly declined to answer Rep. Clyde’s inquiries about the Biden Administration’s plan to reclassify marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III.

In his letter, Rep. Clyde highlighted Milgram’s refusal to answer his questions and her legal justification for doing so. “During this year’s DEA budget hearing, you repeatedly refused to answer any questions related to the ongoing marijuana reclassification formal rulemaking process from multiple members of the subcommittee, stating that you had been advised it would be ‘inappropriate’ to respond to such questions given your role in the process, and you even cited the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) as a legal justification for not responding to these questions.”

Rep. Clyde argued that Milgram is legally required to answer questions from Congress and that her interpretation of the APA is incorrect. He stated, “Under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), any drug classification is required to go through the formal rulemaking process outlined in the Administrative Procedure Act. The APA does provide for certain restrictions on ex parte communications by any person involved in the formal rulemaking process... However, the APA... explicitly provides an exemption for Congress.”

He further noted that “the Department of Justice has repeatedly interpreted a nearly identical provision found in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to mean that information subject to the previously described exemption cannot be withheld from Congress through its committee structure.”

Rep. Clyde emphasized that testimony before congressional committees falls under this exemption: “Testimony in front of the House Committee on Appropriations, Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Subcommittee clearly falls under the exemption for Congress previously described according to the Department of Justice’s own interpretation of the identical provision under FOIA.”

In closing, Rep. Clyde demanded answers to questions posed during the hearing as well as Questions for the Record (QFR) related to marijuana reclassification: “Accordingly, we expect to receive answers to the questions asked by members during the hearing... we additionally expect to receive answers to any questions in the FY25 budget hearing QFRs related to marijuana classification.”

Additionally, Rep. Clyde requested further information regarding why Administrator Milgram did not sign a recent Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on rescheduling marijuana.