GOP Senator Who Helped Federally Legalize Hemp Is Seeking To Close ‘Loophole’ By Banning Products With Committee Vote This Week, Sources Say

The senator who championed the federal legalization of hemp is now seeking
to reverse much of the reform by pushing legislation at a committee hearing
this week to ban on consumable products with quantifiable amounts of THC,
industry stakeholders say.

Several sources told Marijuana Moment on Tuesday that Sen. Mitch McConnell
(R-KY), the former majority leader in the Senate who led the push for hemp
legalization as part of the 2018 Farm Bill, is behind forthcoming language
in agriculture spending legislation that would effectively wipe out the
consumable hemp product market.

The bill text has not been released at this point, however, and there are
efforts within the cannabis space to get it amended before it goes to a
vote in the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday. Marijuana Moment
reached out to McConnell’s office for comment, but representatives did not
respond by the time of publication.

Two of the sources said that the hemp provisions will be identical to what
the House Appropriations Committee passed late last month, with noted
cannabis prohibitionist Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) leading the charge to
correct what he’s described as a “loophole” in the Farm Bill that led to
the proliferation of consumable—and in certain cases
intoxicating—cannabinoid products such as delta-8 THC that have gone
largely unregulated.

Another source said McConnell is aware that hemp legalization is part of
his legacy in the Senate and wants closing the so-called “loophole” that
has allowed the proliferation of intoxicating products to be part of that
history.

Industry experts say the language wouldn’t just ban controversial hemp
products found at gas stations and headshops across the country, however.
Based on the House text, it would prohibit all products containing any
amount of THC, and the concern is that it would mean even CBD items would
likely be banned because it’s extremely rare that the extraction of that
non-intoxicating cannabinoid would have no THC.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told Marijuana Moment recently that he’s opposed to
cannabis language included in the House agriculture appropriations bill
that’s now heading to the floor. He said “I think would completely destroy
the American hemp industry.”

“I don’t know how you’d be able to sell CBD oil with that,” he the senator
said.

While Harris amended report language attached to the bill that clarifies
it’s not the intent of the committee to stop people from accessing
“industrial or nonintoxicating hemp-derived cannabinoid products with trace
or insignificant amounts of THC,” the House bill itself still says that
products containing any “quantifiable” amounts of THC couldn’t be marketed.
And it’s rare to find CBD items without any natural traces of THC.

Again, while industry sources familiar with the discussions say the Senate
version will contain identical language in its current form, the text isn’t
publicly available and it’s possible it could be revised ahead of
Thursday’s committee markup. But if the language is the same, that would
raise serious concerns in the hemp sector, significantly increasing the
likelihood that it could be enacted into law.

Paul, for his part, recently filed a bill that would go in the opposite
direction of Harris’s 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, last month. It mirrors versions he’s
sponsored over the last several sessions.

Hemp and its derivatives were legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill, but the
industry has experienced multiple setbacks in the years since—and the
proliferation of intoxicating cannabinoid products has led to pushes in
Congress and state legislatures across the country to reign in the largely
unregulated market.

Harris, for his part, told Marijuana Moment recently that he’s not
concerned about any potential opposition in the Senate—and he also disputed
reports about the scope of what his legislation would do to the industry.

Harris—who serves as chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on
Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related
Agencies—also noted in the interview with Marijuana Moment that there “was
no opposition [to the hemp provisions] that came up in committee, that’s
for sure.”

He also briefly weighed in on the Texas governor’s recent veto of a bill to
recriminalize hemp products with any THC—simply stating that he’s “not
paying attention to what a single state is doing” while he focuses on
enacting the proposed federal ban.

The language in the congressional bill, meanwhile, would still effectively
eliminate the most commonly marketed hemp products within the industry, as
even non-intoxicating CBD items that are sold across the country typically
contain trace amounts of THC. Under current law, those products are allowed
if they contain no more than 0.3 percent THC by dry weight.

The proposed policy championed by Harris would drastically change that. It
would instead maintain the legal status of “industrial hemp” under a
revised definition that allows for the cultivation and sale of hemp grown
for fiber, whole grain, oil, cake, nut, hull, microgreens or “other edible
hemp leaf products intended for human consumption.”

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) released a report last month
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.

There are some differences between the prior spending bill and this latest
version for 2026, including a redefining of what constitutes a
“quantifiable” amount of THC that’d be prohibited for hemp products.

It now says that a quantifiable amount is “based on substance, form,
manufacture, or article (as determined by the Secretary of Health and Human
Services in consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture),” whereas it
was previously defined as an amount simply “determined by the Secretary in
consultation with the Secretary of Health and Human Services.”

The proposed legislation also now specifies that the term hemp does not
include “a drug that is the subject of an application approved under
subsection (c) or (j) of section 505 of the Federal Food, Drug, and
Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 355),” which seems to carve out an exception for
Food and Drug Administration- (FDA) approved drugs such Epidiolex, which is
synthesized from CBD.

A leading alcohol industry association, meanwhile, has called on Congress
to dial back language in the House spending bill that would ban most
consumable hemp products, instead proposing to maintain the legalization of
naturally derived cannabinoids from the crop and only prohibit synthetic
items.

Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA) President and CEO Francis
Creighton said in a press release that “proponents and opponents alike
have agreed that this language amounts to a ban.”

“By pushing a rapidly evolving industry back into the shadows, Congress is
creating even more chaos in the marketplace, undermining state initiatives
and punishing responsible actors,” he said. “We urge the full House to
reconsider this approach. States can regulate intoxicating products safely
and effectively through systems that preserve consumer trust and public
safety. It’s time for Congress to follow their lead, not override their
authority.”

Members of WSWA also met with lawmakers and staffers in April to advocate
for three key policy priorities that the group says is based on “sound
principles of alcohol distribution.” They include banning synthetic THC,
setting up a federal system for testing and labeling products and
establishing state-level power to regulate retail sales.

Separately, key GOP congressional lawmakers—including one member who
supports marijuana legalization—don’t seem especially concerned about
provisions in the bill despite concern from stakeholders that it would put
much of the hemp industry in jeopardy by banning most consumable products derived
from the plant.


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Jonathan Miller, general counsel of the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, told
congressional lawmakers in April that the market is “begging” for federal
regulations around cannabis products.

At the hearing, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) also inquired about FDA inaction
around regulations, sarcastically asking if it’d require “a gazillion
bureaucrats that work from home” to regulate cannabinoids such as CBD.

A report from Bloomberg Intelligence (BI) last year called cannabis a
“significant threat” to the alcohol industry, citing survey data that
suggests more people are using cannabis as a substitute for alcoholic
beverages such a beer and wine.

Last November, meanwhile, a beer industry trade group put out a statement
of guiding principles to address what it called “the proliferation of
largely unregulated intoxicating hemp and cannabis products,” warning of
risks to consumers and communities resulting from THC consumption.

*Photo courtesy of Brendan Cleak.*

The post GOP Senator Who Helped Federally Legalize Hemp Is Seeking To Close
‘Loophole’ By Banning Products With Committee Vote This Week, Sources Say
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