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of our Commonwealth and U I'm proud to introduce one of my newest colleagues uh who shares now Jefferson County's representation Thomas Massi from the

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fourth congressional district thank you Congressman Yarmouth and uh thank you chairman hornbach uh I am such a junior Congressman in the uh US House of

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Representatives that when I sit on the committee the questions are asked in order of seniority I have yet to get to ask a question yet from your side so the only way I get to speak is if I'm here

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to testify uh I want to speak on as a uh legislator as a farmer and as an entrepreneur and I'll start out with the

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legislative perspective in Congress um I introduced a bill and I should uh remind Rand that he needs to get on the ball in the Senate they're week behind U but

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Congressman Yarmouth and I introduced a bill last week that has 28 co-sponsors and the last time this bill was introduced it had 22 original

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co-sponsors so there is momentum in the Congress for this bill it's a bipartisan Bill 20 of the co-sponsors are Democrats

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and eight of them are Republicans it's HR 525 it's two pages long and it's very simple I would uh uh offer that it does

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not cut any funding for the State Police or for any of the eradication efforts doesn't even mention the funding uh what is this like the Super Bowl the lights

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are going that would about to get a lot better so I don't know if that works all right all the all the bill would do is

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define Industrial Hemp as having a content of less than 3% and it would take it from the list of controlled substances on the Controlled Substances

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Act it's already been referred to the Judiciary and Energy and Commerce uh now like to talk about the farmers perspective um I own a tobacco farm that

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my wife grew up on was handed down to us from her parents who also still live there it's primarily a calaf operation now because there's no suit a

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replacement for tobacco in Eastern Kentucky uh you know if I've been to one tobacco diversification program seminar

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I've been to a dozen I've studied blueberries aquaculture honeybees switch grass we're still looking for a replacement for tobacco in Eastern

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Kentucky and ironically as legislators you have to contribute money for that diversification program and we're not looking for money here today we want to

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pass this bill just to get out of the way of farm who have already identified a crop you know my first exposure to hemp was not in college my first

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exposure to hemp was on the farm when we came back 10 years ago we had a lot of fixing up to do we had to fix the roof of the Barns and I thought I should have some safety equipment so I got a harness

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and I got a lanyard and this thing called a rope grab that goes on the rope and I asked an old iron worker he said go get you 100 feet of rope don't get that nylon junk get you some hemp rope

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because the Rope grab will work a lot better on the hemp rope and I went to the store I thought they'd look at me with three eyes as if I had three eyes but they actually had hemp rope and it

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was made in China and that's the rope that we use on our farm and it kind of made me upset why are we using rope from China and uh Congressman yarmis

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mentioned bailing twine now on the farm when we're putting up hay on our farm and my kids help with this too the only reason we have to go to town and spend

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money is to buy diesel and to buy bailing twine and wouldn't it be wonderful if we could buy bailing twine made in Kentucky I looked at the history of the Cil

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bailing twine that comes from Brazil it came into usage in the 30s just as hemp was being outlawed here and it took over in 48 just as we could quit producing

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hemp with the United States finally i' I'd like to talk from an entrepreneurial perspective um it's the dream of my wife and I to pass our family our family farm

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onto our children and for them not to have to subdivide it or cut all the timber but in order to do that there has to be a viable economic alternative couple economic terms here one basic

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tenant of microeconomics in a in a market where there's no barrier to entry and the long-term profits are zero and uh barriers to entry can be a capital

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intensive program uh patents or legislative barriers we're asking you to reduce the legislative barriers and finally the other final economic term I

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want to mention here is first mover Advantage okay uh you've all heard of eBay nobody's heard of the second online

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bidding site you've all heard of Facebook book you've all heard of Google what if somebody sat back and said well let's see in how the search engine business goes for Google before we get

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into this business I mean there would be no second place finisher in these games and I submit to you that we we are competing with other states and that's

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why I came back from Washington day to be here today because I care about Kentucky our climate is perfect for this and we're going to be competing with Ohio Indiana and Tennessee because their

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climate is just as well suited as ours is so I'm you to pass Senate bill 50 please thank

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you thank you Senator weab think you had a question I have a comment I'd like to welcome uh I'm his Senator my Cong he

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was my congressman but redistricting took him from me but I'm still his Senator and I'm still his good friend Thomas Massie thanks for coming and thanks for all of you taking time out of

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your schedules I know senator Paul and I talked about this issue in Washington a few weeks ago and uh and Thomas and I got a tour by Congressman GTH and that

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was fun but I just really appreciate you Thomas and appreciate your friendship I've been to his farm he's sincere and his those lovely children I want to keep

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as my constituents thank you thank you Senator Webb U and Senator Webb is also from a tobacco region that's been hard hit by the transition

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Carter County Lewis County Mason County we're all looking for that replacement crop and the question I want to ask is do you know and I know I don't get that asked questions but would we rather see

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the uh warehouses for the hemp in Aberdine Ohio or would we rather see them in meville Kentucky and I'd rather see him in meville Kentucky thank you

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Senator Stein thank you Mr chairman thank you all so much for being here we appreciate it a great deal um I believe that the father of our country grew

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Industrial Hemp