Bipartisan Lawmakers Say Hemp THC Ban In Spending Bill Violates Congressional Rules, As They Prepare New Measure To Regulate Market

Bipartisan House lawmakers are pushing back against attempts to ban hemp
THC products, arguing that it would “deal a fatal blow” to the industry
and, as currently included in a spending bill, violates congressional
rules. To that end, the members say there are plans in the works to
introduce an alternative measure to regulate the market.

In a letter sent to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Friday, House
Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) and
26 other members said the appropriations legislation that’s advancing in
the House with the hemp ban provisions intact would upend the industry
that’s emerged since the crop was legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill.

While the Senate ultimately stripped similar language from its version of
the agriculture spending measure following a procedural protest from Sen.
Rand Paul (R-KY), there’s still concern among stakeholders that it could
wind up in the final package delivered to the president following bicameral
negotiations.

If that were to happen, the lawmakers wrote that “it would deal a fatal
blow to American farmers supplying the regulated hemp industry and small
businesses, and jeopardize tens of billions of dollars in economic activity
around the country.”

“Additionally, there are serious procedural concerns with how the language
ended up in these bills,” they said. “This language has not been considered
in a markup or hearing by any relevant authorizing committee and there was
no public forum for members to express concerns with this language and
preferred alternative legislation more appropriate for the relevant
authorizing committees.”

Specifically, the letter says the inclusion of the hemp provisions in the
House bill “clearly violates” a rule prohibiting language that changes
existing law through general appropriations legislation.

“Perhaps most concerning is the characterization by proponents of this
language that the bill will not negatively impact the industrial hemp
industry,” it says, referring to comments from certain legislators such as
Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) who have championed
the controversial proposal.

“On the contrary, it eliminates the existing and future development of dual
cultivars used by farmers to produce grain and cannabinoids or fiber and
cannabinoids,” the letter continues. “These genetic advances are critical
to maximizing the economic value of a single crop, giving farmers the
flexibility to respond to shifting market demands and improve overall
profitability.”

“In short, the inherent interconnectedness of the grain, fiber and
cannabinoid markets means the long-term success of American hemp farmers
depends on the continued viability of all three markets. The hemp industry
is not a collection of competing sectors, but an interconnected ecosystem
where growth in one segment supports opportunity and innovation across the
whole.”

Rather than pursue “this damaging appropriations rider,” the bipartisan
members said Congress should enact regulations for consumable hemp that
would prevent sales to people under 21, prohibit copycat products that
resemble popular non-cannabis brands, standardize labeling requirements and
mandate lab testing.

As noted in the letter, such legislation has previously been introduced in
the Senate. It also says legislation is actively being drafted in the House
Energy and Commerce Committee.

“By arbitrarily changing the definition of legal hemp rather than
responsibly regulating the market, Congress is effectively turning out the
lights on America’s legal hemp farmers and undermining the work being done
by our colleagues in the authorizing committees and in states that have
created regulatory frameworks for hemp products,” the letter says.

“For these reasons, we strongly urge leadership to remove this language
from the FY26 Ag-FDA Appropriations bill and any final FY26 appropriations
bill,” it concludes. “We will continue to stand up for American hemp
farmers and small businesses and oppose efforts to include this language in
any bill.”

Besides Comer, other signatories on the letter include Reps. Andy Barr
(R-KY), Thomas Massie (R-KY), Nancy Mace (R-SC), Ted Lieu (D-CA), Dan
Crenshaw (R-TX) and more.

Comer said in a press release with the U.S. Hemp Roundtable that he’s
“witnessed firsthand the tremendous potential of industrial hemp to create
quality jobs and meaningful economic opportunities for American workers and
family farmers.”

“As Kentucky’s Commissioner of Agriculture, I spearheaded the state’s
industrial hemp pilot program and continue to be a strong advocate for the
hemp industry in Congress,” he said. “I’m fully committed to leading
bipartisan efforts to urge House leadership to strip harmful language from
the FY26 Ag-FDA bill—and any final appropriations package—that arbitrarily
redefines legal hemp.”

Meanwhile, Democratic senators also sent a letter to leadership earlier
this month that warned of the major upheaval that would happen in the hemp
market if products containing any amount of THC were banned.

“Consumer safety and protecting kids while promoting opportunities for
national economic growth in the hemp industry can and must go
hand-in-hand,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who led that letter with Sen. Jeff
Merkley (D-OR), said. “Congress needs to get serious about pursuing
common-sense safeguards to protect kids and consumers and encourage
innovation instead of a one-size-fits-all approach that hinders economic
development and doesn’t keep kids safe.”

Dozens of hemp farmers from Kentucky also recently urged their state’s
senior U.S. senator, McConnell, to back off from his push to recriminalize
some products that are derived from their crops.

Paul, for his part, recently cautioned that the cannabis policy movement
has “swung hard on the prohibitionist side” amid the ongoing debate over
intoxicating hemp products. And he worries that, if things go awry, the
hemp market could be decimated “within the next two weeks.”

Asked about recent conversations with McConnell and Harris, Paul said “we’ve
been working diligently” with the staff “trying to reach a compromise.”

“A lot of the conversations have been constructive. They say, at least on
the surface, they’re not trying to eliminate it—but I think we are, in some
ways, talking past each other,” he said.


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Meanwhile, Paul recently filed a standalone bill that would go in the
opposite direction of the hemp ban, proposing to triple the concentration
of THC that the crop could legally contain, while addressing multiple other
concerns the industry has expressed about federal regulations.

The senator introduced the legislation, titled the Hemp Economic
Mobilization Plan (HEMP) Act, in June. It mirrors versions he’s sponsored
over the last several sessions.

Harris, who championed the hemp THC ban in his chamber version of the
agriculture spending legislation, told Marijuana Moment that he wasn’t
concerned about any potential opposition to the hemp ban in the Senate—and
he also disputed reports about the scope of what his legislation would do
to the industry.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) released a report in June stating
that the legislation would “effectively” prohibit hemp-derived cannabinoid
products. Initially it said that such a ban would prevent the sale of CBD
as well, but the CRS report was updated to exclude that language for
reasons that are unclear.

The hemp language is largely consistent with appropriations and agriculture
legislation that was introduced, but not ultimately enacted, under the last
Congress.

Hemp industry stakeholders rallied against that proposal, an earlier
version of which was also included in the base bill from the subcommittee
last year. It’s virtually identical to a provision of the 2024 Farm Bill
that was attached by a separate committee last May via an amendment from
Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL), which was also not enacted into law.

*Photo courtesy of Brendan Cleak.*

The post Bipartisan Lawmakers Say Hemp THC Ban In Spending Bill Violates
Congressional Rules, As They Prepare New Measure To Regulate Market
appeared first on Marijuana Moment.