Senate Democratic legislation would prevent agencies from focusing on marijuana use to reject candidates

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Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) introduced legislation last week that would prohibit federal agencies from using marijuana use as the sole factor in rejecting applicants.

Peters announced in a statement Wednesday that he has introduced the Dismantling Obstacles and Outdated Barriers to Individual Employment Act, also known as the DOOBIE Act.

The legislation was presented in the Senate on July 11 and forwarded to the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, according to the bill’s text.

“As we work to build a highly skilled federal workforce, it is crucial that the federal government modernizes its hiring practices to reflect evolving laws and social norms,” Peters said in the declaration. “My bill will take a common-sense step to align federal statutes with existing agency guidance and ensure that talented individuals are not automatically disqualified from service solely because of prior marijuana use.”

Current law allows qualified applicants to be denied federal employment due to prior use of marijuana or cannabis products, according to a press release from the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, which Peters chairs.

Although the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) have issued guidance saying that past marijuana use alone should not disqualify candidates, potential candidates remain hesitant to apply. , the committee noted in the press release.

The legislation “would align federal hiring practices with current guidance on past marijuana use, broaden the applicant pool by providing clarity for future federal employees, and help the government compete with the private sector for talent,” said the committee in the press release.

The Biden administration announced in May that it had taken steps to reclassify marijuana to Schedule III from its Schedule I designation.

“This is monumental. Today, my administration took an important step toward reclassifying marijuana from a schedule one drug to a schedule three drug. It is an important step towards reversing long-standing inequalities,” President Biden said in a statement at the time.