Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican majority leader from Kentucky, is promoting new legislation to legalize hemp and remove it from the list of controlled substances.

Kentucky is one of the country’s top producers of industrial hemp, which is a different form of the plant used to produce marijuana.

McConnell said Monday he’ll introduce the bill when Congress reconvenes in April.

The legislation follows a hemp production pilot program McConnell included in the 2014 Farm Bill. McConnell said the pilot program research showed hemp production’s potential as an agricultural commodity.

“Hemp has played a foundational role in Kentucky’s agricultural heritage, and I believe that it can be an important part of our future,” McConnell said Monday.

He said the legislation would allow states to become primary regulators of hemp and would lift the federal restriction on growing hemp and give researchers access to federal grants from the Department of Agriculture.