A GOP-led House committee has approved a spending bill containing provisions that hemp stakeholders say would devastate the industry, prohibiting most consumable cannabinoid products that were federally legalized during the first Trump administration.
Just one day after releasing the text of the legislation, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies advanced the proposal covering fiscal year 2026 in a 9-7 vote, sending it to the full committee for consideration.
The 138-page bill covers a wide range of issues, but for the hemp industry, there’s a section of particular concern that would redefine hemp under federal statute in a way that would prohibit cannabis products containing any “quantifiable” amount of THC or “any other cannabinoids that have similar effects (or are marketed to have similar effects) on humans or animals” as THC.
Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), chair of the subcommittee, said in opening remarks that the legislation “closes the hemp loophole from the 2018 Farm Bill that has resulted in the proliferation of intoxicating cannabinoid products, including delta-8 and hemp flower being sold online and in gas stations nationwide under the false guise of being ‘USDA approved.’”
“As many states have stepped in to curb these dangerous products from reaching consumers, particularly children, it’s time for Congress to act to close this loophole, while protecting the legitimate industrial hemp industry,” he said.
That would 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.
But the proposed policy being taken up by the subcommittee helmed by Harris, a vociferous opponent of marijuana reform, 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.”
A press release from Harris’s committee says the legislation “supports the Trump Administration and mandate of the American people by…closing the hemp loophole that has resulted in the proliferation of unregulated intoxicating hemp products, including Delta-8 and hemp flower, being sold online and in gas stations across the country.”
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