Senate DOOBIE Act would overlook past marijuana use in feds’ hiring, security clearances

As more states continue to decriminalize the use of marijuana for personal or medicinal purposes, lawmakers are continuing to urge the government to ease consideration of applicants’ past cannabis use as a deciding factor when it comes to hiring for federal positions or approving security clearances. 

Legislation introduced on July 11 by Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich. — the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee — would align federal law with existing guidance that diminishes the importance of previous marijuana use in the hiring process. 

The bill is named the Dismantling Outdated Obstacles and Barriers to Individual Employment — or DOOBIE — Act.

Twenty-four states — including Washington, D.C. — have legalized medical and recreational cannabis use, while another 14 states allow the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. Although the drug remains illegal on the federal level, the government has taken steps in recent years to ease regulations around marijuana use. 

The Justice Department announced in May that it was moving to reclassify marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III, a less strict category that would remove it from being in the same class as other drugs like heroin and ecstasy and place it on the same level as anabolic steroids.

Peters said in a statement that “it’s crucial that the federal government modernizes its hiring practices to reflect evolving laws and societal norms.” 

Guidance previously issued by several federal agencies has limited the role of past cannabis use in the hiring and security clearance processes, although it has not been codified into law. 

The Office of Personnel Management released a memo in February 2021 that said its regulations “do not permit agencies to automatically find individuals unsuitable for federal service on the basis of marijuana use prior to appointment.”

A similar memo released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in December 2021 said that past recreational marijuana use should not be a “determinative” factor when it comes to approving or denying a security clearance request. 

Peters’ office said his legislation “would prohibit federal agencies from using past marijuana use as the sole factor in determining employment suitability, qualification standards, or eligibility for security clearances and federal credentials.” 

For the security clearance process, the bill would also exempt previous cannabis use “from a blanket denial in security clearance statutes and add statutory clarification that past marijuana use alone cannot disqualify candidates from federal employment.”

The legislative proposal would also direct OPM and ODNI to update their guidance to include language stating that previous marijuana use does not automatically disqualify individuals from receiving federal jobs or security clearances. 

“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,” Peters said. “By providing this much-needed clarity for agencies and applicants, we will ensure that the federal government can recruit and retain the best and brightest to serve our nation.”

Peters’ bill is the Senate companion to House legislation that was introduced last July by Reps. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., and Nancy Mace, R-S.C. Their proposal passed the House Oversight and Accountability Committee in a bipartisan vote in September 2023, although it has not received a vote in the full House. 

Neither the House legislation or the recent Senate proposal, however, includes an exemption when it comes to current or ongoing marijuana use.