The Senate is not in session and stands in recess until 3:00 P.M. on Monday, April 4 when the Senate is expected to vote on a motion to discharge the nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to be Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from the Committee on the Judiciary. Once the motion is made, there will be up to 4 hours of debate, equally divided, prior to a vote on the motion. That vote is expected after 5:30 p.m.
Before adjourning for the week, the House passed (220-204) the MORE Act, a bill that would end the federal prohibition on cannabis by removing it from the list of banned controlled substances. This is the second time the bill passed the House; however, it will face strong headwinds in the Senate. The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, was introduced by House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler, (D-New York). Cannabis is legal for adult-use in 19 states and for medical use in 36 states. This bill would end the federal ban but leave legalization up to the states. The legal marijuana industry generated $25 billion in sales last year, a 43% increase over 2020, and is expected to hit $65 billion in 2030.
Finally, the economy added another 431,000 jobs in March and bringing the unemployment rate to a new pandemic-era low of 3.6%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Prior to the pandemic, the jobless rate was at 3.5%, matching the near 50-year low first set in 2019. Even though the job gains were slightly lower than economists had expected, they still rounded up a strong first quarter for the US labor market with an average monthly gain of more than half a million jobs. March was the 15th straight month of robust job gains. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for 490,000 on payrolls and 3.7% for the jobless level.
