Eye On Illinois: Hemp bill implosion indicates ruling party isn't always in lockstep

If I were a Democratic strategist, the ongoing developments regarding House Bill 4293 would be an opportunity to tell a story.

The topic is regulating the hemp industry. As explained in mid-December, Illinois’ 2018 Industrial Hemp Act gave the Department of Agriculture regulatory authority concurrent with a federal Farm Bill removing hemp from the list of controlled substances, enabling farmers to include it in loan and crop insurance applications.

On Dec. 10, following years of negotiations, the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules approved regulations on the production and sale of intoxicating hemp products. Concurrently, lawmakers worked on HB 4293. The Senate passed a final version 54-1 in May, but the House didn’t take any action.

According to Capitol News Illinois, the law would restrict how much THC a product can contain, set marketing and advertising guidelines and limit the sale of such products to licensed businesses. Despite the Senate approval and Gov. JB Pritzker’s endorsement, the issue more or less imploded during the waning hours of this week’s lame duck session.

Now, if you’re looking to write a “Dems in disarray” story, the elements are in place. The Cannabis Business Association of Illinois is disappointed in the House. Embattled Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is pushing his own local regulations and seeking credit for tanking the Springfield effort. Pritzker decried a House Democratic Caucus meeting at which elected officials “berated” administrative experts trying to explain policy.

Cast in another light, this disagreement could proffer evidence against the widely held assumption that all Illinois Democrats are cut from the same cloth, that the Statehouse is indistinguishable from Chicago City Hall, that lame duck sessions exist solely to ram through unpopular or unvetted bills that further drive the state into decline and ruin.

As usual, the actual reality is some distance removed from the convenient narratives. If, as Pritzker asserts, the current framework ends with hospitalized kids who thought they were eating candy, then bureaucratic dithering isn’t to be celebrated. This is especially true if the focus falls more on who yelled at whom or which individuals are scoring the most political points.

Yet if the votes weren’t there, the bill shouldn’t pass just because the clock approached zero. JCAR has already been involved, so it would seem plausible to handle safety aspects through further administrative action while giving lawmakers time to sort out financial implications. A truly functional government could address all the challenges concurrently, but at heart, the dispute appears to be an issue where politics is interfering with the core functions.

The story to tell isn’t explicitly successful. Disagreement isn’t inherently constructive, and the ways we argue matter. But it’s OK to observe and appreciate independent thoughts, motivations and actions.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. Follow him on X @sth749. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.