The US House Agriculture Committee has voted to advance the 2026 farm bill without adopting any provisions to delay or repeal the incoming ban on intoxicating hemp.
On March 05, 2026, after spending more than 20 hours marking up the extensive Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026, the committee voted by 34-17 to approve it.
It marks the latest development in the long and complex battle to rein in the previously largely unregulated intoxicating hemp market.
The November 2026 ban, passed as part of the government reopening deal signed by President Trump in November 2025, would prohibit any hemp-derived consumable product containing more than 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container, a threshold the industry describes as a ‘de facto ban’ on the overwhelming majority of products currently on the market. The US Hemp Roundtable estimates restrictions will affect 95% of the sector.
As Business of Cannabis reported in February, the FDA has also missed its 90-day deadline to clarify which cannabinoids will be caught by the ban, leaving manufacturers, retailers, and farmers in regulatory limbo with less than eight months until the effective date.
Although the newly passed legislation does address hemp, tightening the federal definition of the plant and imposing new penalties on farmers who mislabel their crops, it provides no clarity on finished hemp products.
Committee Chairman Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., had determined ahead of the markup that any amendment relating to the hemp ban was not germane to the Farm Bill, placing it outside the committee’s jurisdiction. During the hearing, he reiterated his position that regulating hemp products in their final form falls under the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and the FDA.
“The AG appropriations bill that passed last fall brought clarity to the industry on what is or is not allowable under the definitions of hemp,” Thompson said during markup. “A comprehensive regulatory framework for these products falls outside the jurisdiction of this committee.”
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On hemp cultivation, the Farm Bill does offer some limited concessions to farmers. It directs the USDA to expand laboratory access for hemp testing, removes the requirement that testing labs be DEA-registered, and gives states greater flexibility in administering their hemp programmes. Farmers who self-designate as industrial hemp growers, producing fibre and grain rather than cannabinoids, would face reduced sampling and testing requirements.
The bill also removes the existing 10-year ineligibility period for felony convictions related to controlled substances for industrial hemp farmers, though it replaces it with a five-year ban for any farmer who is designated as an industrial producer but knowingly grows cannabinoid hemp.
A bid to include relief for the broader hemp product industry was withdrawn before it came to a vote. Rep. Jim Baird, R-Ind., and Ranking Member Angie Craig, D-Minn., had filed an amendment to extend the hemp ban’s implementation deadline by one year, distinct from Baird’s standalone Hemp Planting Predictability Act, which seeks a two-year delay to November 2028.
Baird was absent from the markup following the death of his wife. Craig presented the amendment on his behalf before withdrawing it, noting she considered the appropriations process through which the ban was introduced “just plain wrong.”
With the Farm Bill offering no relief, advocates are focused on standalone legislation. The Hemp Planting Predictability Act would delay the ban by two years without establishing any new regulatory framework, an approach backed by farm groups but criticised by some in the industry as insufficient.
A separate proposal, the Hemp Enforcement, Modernization, and Protection (HEMP) Act, sponsored by Reps. Morgan Griffith, R-W.Va., and Marc Veasey, D-Texas, would instead establish a federal regulatory structure allowing intoxicating hemp products for adults 21 and older, with default potency limits of 5mg THC per serving and 30mg per package.
Both bills face an uncertain legislative path. The Farm Bill now advances to the full House, after which the Senate must pass its own version before any final legislation can reach the president’s desk.
