House Republicans are quietly drafting their own weed bill

While Sen. Chuck Schumer's Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act picks up cosponsors on the Democratic side, a separate group of House Republicans is preparing its own descheduling bill, according to congressional staffers. The plan: pull marijuana off the Controlled Substances Act entirely, similar in effect to the MORE Act, but introduced before the midterms and built to attract GOP votes.

The difference is what's missing. Where the MORE Act pairs descheduling with expungements, resentencing, a federal excise tax, and reinvestment programs for communities hit hardest by prohibition, this version reportedly does none of that. It would simply remove marijuana from federal law and leave states to keep prohibiting or regulating it as they choose.

That's a narrower bet, but possibly a more viable one — a clean states'-rights bill is easier for a Republican to vote for than anything with social-equity language attached, and descheduling (unlike Schedule III) would let cannabis businesses claim ordinary tax deductions under 280E without waiting on DEA to finish its Schedule III process first.

For operators, this is still a bill without sponsors or text attached yet. But its existence signals something the industry has wanted to see: descheduling is no longer treated as a Democrats-only position on the Hill, which matters if this Congress or the next one ever gets a bill to the floor.