U.S. House lawmakers are taking up a must-pass appropriations bill that proposes rewriting the rules on hemp so that the legality of intoxicating products such as delta-8 THC edibles is no longer debatable.

The House Appropriations Committee released the fiscal year 2026 “Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill” on June 4. The 138-page legislation covers a variety of issues facing U.S. farmers, ranchers, and rural communities, and intends to provide more than $25 billion in discretionary allocations to help protect America’s food and drug supply.

This legislation is passed every year to fund farm programs.

However, the 2026 proposal, as introduced, would redefine hemp to exclude any hemp-derived cannabinoid products (finished goods) containing:

• cannabinoids that are not capable of being naturally produced;
• cannabinoids that are capable of being naturally produced but were synthesized or manufactured outside of the plant; or
• quantifiable amounts of THC or THCA, or other cannabinoids that have similar effects on humans or animals.

The legislation authorizes the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services to determine what qualifies as “quantifiable amounts” of THC or other cannabinoids.

Meanwhile, industrial hemp grown for fiber, grain or other non-cannabinoid purposes would be defined separately.

In other words, the legislation would backtrack on defining hemp as containing no more than 0.3% delta-9 THC on a dry-weight basis during a pre-harvest field test, as provided under the 2018 Farm Bill, which federally legalized hemp.

Since the 2018 Farm Bill, the intoxicating hemp product marketplace has exploded to a multibillion-dollar industry, especially in states absent of cannabis legalization, such as Texas, where cannabinoids from legal hemp plants are extracted and manufactured into consumables sold at vape shops, convenience stores and gas stations that are often unregulated.

U.S. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., released a four-page summary of the 2026 spending bill on June 4, writing that it puts the “health, safety, and prosperity of American producers and consumers first.”

Among the key takeaways in the summary, the authors wrote that the bill “supports the Trump administration and mandates 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.”

Read more at Cannabis Business Times