The White House on Thursday praised the Justice Department‘s step toward reclassifying marijuana from a Schedule I drug to Schedule III under federal law as a way to counter racial injustice.

Downgrading marijuana will remove “barriers to critical research,” according to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. It will also build on pardons and sentence commutations Biden has provided to people convicted for federal and Washington, D.C., offenses of simple possession, which has lifted other “barriers” to housing to small business loans.