H.R. 6807 — Marijuana in Federally Assisted Housing Parity Act of 2025

This section revises the definition of drug-related criminal activity under the United States Housing Act of 1937 (i.e., the law authorizing public housing and Section 8 tenant-based rental assistance programs) in three provisions to exclude marijuana activities (as defined in 21 U.S.C. 802) compliant with state law, thereby limiting public housing agencies' authority to deny admission, terminate tenancy, or end assistance based on such activities. Specifically, the section: (1) amends section 3(b)(9) to exclude compliant manufacture, sale, distribution, use, or possession of marijuana; (2) amends section 6— (A) in subsection (l) to make a conforming change (striking "paragraph (5)" and inserting "paragraph (6)") and to exclude compliant manufacture, sale, distribution, use, or possession of marijuana; and (B) in subsection (t)(7)(C) to exclude compliant use of marijuana; and (3) amends section 8(f)(5) to exclude compliant manufacture, sale, distribution, use, or possession of marijuana.

This section amends Subtitle F of title V of the Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1998—which governs screening of applicants for, and termination of tenancy in, public and federally assisted housing (i.e., rental housing receiving federal subsidies such as Section 8)—to exclude marijuana activities compliant with state law from federal restrictions on controlled substances, as follows: (1) in section 576, revising screening standards to permit admission of households engaging in state-compliant marijuana use, distribution, possession, sale, or manufacture (as defined in 21 U.S.C. 802) and excluding such activity from the definition of "criminal activity" for termination purposes; (2) in section 577, excluding state-compliant marijuana activity from the definition of "illegal use of a controlled substance" for termination purposes; (3) in section 579, defining "State" to include the District of Columbia and U.S. territories; and (4) inserting new section 580, which prohibits the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development from discouraging state-compliant marijuana activity in federally assisted housing and directs the Secretary to issue, within 90 days of enactment, regulations restricting marijuana smoking in the same manner and locations as tobacco smoking in public housing under 24 C.F.R. subpart G.