Senate Democrat’s legislation would bar agencies from focusing on marijuana use to reject applicants 

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

Peters announced in a statement Wednesday he had introduced the Dismantling Outdated Obstacles and Barriers to Individual Employment Act, also known as the DOOBIE Act.

The legislation was introduced in the Senate on July 11 and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, according to the bill text.

“As we work to build a highly skilled federal workforce, it’s crucial that the federal government modernizes its hiring practices to reflect evolving laws and societal norms,” Peters said in the statement. “My bill will take the commonsense step to align federal statutes with existing agency guidance and ensure that talented individuals are not automatically disqualified from service solely due to past marijuana use.”

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

While the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) have issued guidance saying past marijuana use alone shouldn’t disqualify candidates, potential applicants 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 prospective federal employees, and help the government compete with the private sector for talent,” the committee said in the press release.

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

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