The chair of a legislative industrial hemp summer study says they will wait on crafting legislation once the US Department of Ag announces federal guidelines.
Republican Representative Lee Qualm says he will call another meeting once USDA rules are promulgated.
“We may have to do a conference call,” Qualm says. “That’s what I’m thinking, we may do a conference call before we get together. I’m going to wait until USDA comes out with some stuff, because we really need to have that stuff before we really make any firm commitments as to what we want to do. Just to make it simpler. Yeah, we could put a spot in the bill where da-da-da, all this is for when stuff comes out. But I think in the long run we would be better off if we just waited for that one.”
The hemp study met on Monday this week.
It’s the first such meeting since Governor Kristi Noem penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal saying she would veto any hemp legislation that reached her desk.