A GOP congressman pushing for a federal hemp THC ban in a spending bill that’s advancing in the House says he’s not concerned about any potential opposition in the Senate—and he’s also disputing reports about the scope of what his legislation would do to the industry.

Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) told Marijuana Moment on Wednesday that “the bottom line is that you have some bad actors who are taking advantage of a loophole in the Farm Bill to sell psychoactive substances,” which was “not the intention.”

The congressman was referencing a large-scale agriculture bill that President Donald Trump signed into law during his first term that federally legalized hemp and its derivatives.

The 2026 spending legislation that contains provisions to ban consumable hemp products with any quantifiable amount of THC advanced out of the House Appropriations Committee on Monday and is now headed to the floor before potentially getting taken up by the Senate.

Asked whether he worried about pushback on the hemp language in the opposite chamber, Harris said, “I don’t think so.”

“I think we very carefully drafted it,” he said, adding that, “I think there was some misunderstanding about the wording that some people said, somehow, any measurable amount [of THC] would result in it not being able to be sold. That’s not what the legislation said.”

But while a report attached to the legislation was amended to make that clarification, signaling that Congress doesn’t mean to prohibit non-intoxicating consumable cannabinoids like CBD, the text of the bill itself hasn’t been changed.

The relevant section would redefine the crop under federal statute in a way that would still 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.

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 week 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.

The LCB contributed reporting from Washington, D.C. 

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Attempts to ban intoxicating hemp products nationwide and in Texas captured the attention of our Cannabis Business Times audience as the most-read storylines in June 2025.

At the federal level, the U.S. House Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration advanced a must-pass spending bill on June 5 that included provisions to redefine hemp in a manner to close a “loophole” in the 2018 Farm Bill that has resulted in the proliferation of intoxicating cannabinoid products, such as those that contain delta-8 THC.

“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,” said Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., the subcommittee’s chairman.

On June 23, the full Appropriations Committee voted along party lines, 35-27, to approve the spending bill, including the hemp provisions, sending it to the Rules Committee to be prepared for the House floor.

These two articles took the No. 1 and No. 4 spots in CBT’s Top 10 most-read articles this month.

An article about Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s deadline for executive action on bills to expand the state’s medical cannabis program and to prohibit intoxicating hemp products took the No. 2 spot, and a follow-up article covering his veto of the hemp ban took the No. 3 spot.

“The legal defects in the bill are undeniable,” Abbott wrote in a June 22 veto proclamation. “If I were to allow Senate Bill 3 to become law, its enforcement would be enjoined for years, leaving existing abuse unaddressed. Texas cannot afford to wait.”

He leaned his argument on a 2023 preliminary injunction in Arkansas that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit vacated on June 24, two days after Abbott’s veto, pitting the governor against Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who spearheaded S.B. 3. The duo is lined up to spar over whether to ban or regulate hemp during a special session that’s set to begin July 21.

Other stories that readers did not want to miss out on this month included Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s push to keep an adult-use legalization proposal in the state budget and South Dakota setting a July 14 date to begin cracking down on noncompliant hemp product sales.

Don’t miss out on our Top 10 stories from June 2025.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is moving forward with a proposal that aims to better track the health impacts of hemp-derived cannabinoid products by adding CBD and other hemp-derived cannabinoids as selectable options on federal documents used by healthcare professionals, patients and consumers to report adverse events.

Initially unveiled in January, the proposal would revise the “Product Type” field of FDA safety reporting documents to include a selection for “Cannabinoid Hemp Products (such as products containing CBD).” An initial round of comments was open until mid-March.

In a post published in the Federal Register this week, FDA announced that the “proposed collection of information” has now been submitted to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) “for review and clearance.”

The new filing says that two comments were received in the initial round of public feedback supporting the addition of a “cannabinoid hemp product” category “but encouraged FDA to include additional categories as well that would allow for specific data as it pertained to a wider variety of individual products.” A third called for changes to make entries easier by respondents.

“FDA appreciates each comment and although we continue to modify applicable forms to increase the utility of the information collection as our limited resources allow,” the agency said, “we are proposing no other modifications at this time.”

An additional round of feedback is now being accepted on the submission of the information, with comments due by July 25.

The move—designed to more actively gather information about adverse health effects that might be linked to hemp-derived products—comes amid a number of other CBD-focused actions at the federal level and state levels.

Earlier this week, for example, a powerful House committee 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.

The House Appropriations Committee passed the agriculture appropriations legislation in a 35-27 vote on Monday. It now heads to the Rules Committee to be prepared for floor consideration.

While the panel adopted a manager’s amendment to a report attached to the bill earlier this month that provided clarifying language stating that members did not intend to prohibit non-intoxicating cannabinoid products with “trace or insignificant amounts of THC,” the underlying bill went unchanged, despite the industry’s concerns about the proposal.

The large-scale measure covers a wide range of issues, but for hemp advocates and stakeholders, there’s one section of particular concern that would redefine the crop 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.

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

An Appropriations Committee press release on Monday said the bill “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.”

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.

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.

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.

Separately at FDA, the head of the federal agency recently called exploring the therapeutic potential of psychedelics such as psilocybin and ibogaine a “top priority” for the Trump administration, especially when it comes to helping military veterans grapple with trauma from being sent to fight “unnecessary wars.”

And in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) earlier this month signed into law a bill to create a state-backed research consortium to conduct clinical trials on ibogaine as a possible treatment for substance use disorders and other mental health conditions, with an ultimate goal of developing the psychedelic into a prescription drug with FDA approval, with the state retaining a portion of the profit.

As for hemp-derived cannabinoids in Texas, Abbott also recently vetoed a controversial bill that would have banned consumable hemp products with any traces of THC, which advocates and stakeholders say would have devastated a growing industry in the state.

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