A Republican congressman has introduced a bill that would give the hemp industry two more years before a federal ban on THC products would take effect, which stakeholders hope will better position them to negotiate a broader compromise with lawmakers.
After President Donald Trump signed a spending bill last year with provisions that would wipe out a prominent sector of the hemp economy, businesses and advocates were quick to call for at least delaying its implementation. The law is currently set to become effective this November.
To that end, Rep. Jim Baird’s (R-IN) new legislation filed on Monday would push that timeline back by another two years, giving hemp interests additional time to make their case that the policy would significantly harm the industry that was legalized during Trump’s first term under the 2018 Farm Bill.
The two-page measure simply states that “Section 781 of the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agency Appropriations Act, 2026 is amended, in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by striking ‘365 days’ and inserting ‘3 years.’”
Baird’s bill has four initial cosponsors: Reps. James Comer (R-KY), Gabe Evans (R-CO), Tim Moore (R-NC) and Angie Craig (D-MN).
Several bipartisan lawmakers, including the sponsor, protested as the spending legislation with the hemp ban provision advanced through Congress.
“American farmers around the country have invested their time and resources over the last six years to develop a domestic supply chain of hemp and hemp products,” the congressman said when a version of the proposal was approved in committee in 2024. “Hemp provides a great opportunity for family farm to diversify their farm income by using him as a rotational crop.”
If the law were to be passed and ultimately enacted, stakeholders feel that could give them enough time to convey to Congress that, rather than an outright ban on most consumable hemp products, lawmakers could address their concerns about youth access and quality control for intoxicating cannabinoids through a more targeted regulatory approach that includes age-gating and testing requirements, for example.
“This two-year extension gives farmers the certainty they need to make planting decisions with confidence,” Justin Swanson, president of Midwest Hemp Council, said in a press release. “Congressman Baird understands that hemp farmers cannot operate in an environment of constant uncertainty.”
Baird will also be joined by Comer and members of the hemp community for an event on Thursday, organized by the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, to discuss the potential consequences of implementing the cannabinoid ban.
For what it’s worth, four in five marijuana consumers say they oppose the recriminalization of hemp THC products under the spending bill Trump signed in November. However, it should be noted that that poll was conducted weeks before he issued a cannabis rescheduling order and took steps to protect access to full-spectrum CBD.
Trump signed an executive order last month directing the attorney general to complete the process of moving marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).
Part of that announcement also hold implications for the forthcoming hemp law. The president’s order also urged Congress to examine updating the definition of hemp to ensure that full-spectrum CBD is accessible to patients.
A further redefinition of hemp would be part of a novel proposal to allow Medicare recipients to access non-intoxicating CBD that’d be covered under the federal health care plan.
To effectuate that, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will be announcing “a model that will allow a number of CMS beneficiaries to benefit from receiving CBD under doctor recommendation at no cost,” a White House official said during a briefing that Marijuana Moment first reported leaked details from ahead of the signing event.
Trump seemed endorse a more flexible CBD policy last summer when he shared a video calling for that specific reform while promoting the health benefits of cannabidiol, particularly for seniors.
Meanwhile, a separate recently filed Republican-led congressional bill would stop the implementation of the hemp ban under the enacted appropriations legislation.
Hemp businesses and industry groups have warned about the potential ramifications of the ban, but despite his support for states’ rights for cannabis and a recent social media post touting the benefits of CBD, Trump signed the underlying spending measure into law without acknowledging the hemp provisions.
GOP political operative Roger Stone said recently that Trump was effectively “forced” by Republican lawmakers to sign the spending bill with the hemp THC ban language.
However, a White House spokesperson said prior to the bill signing that Trump specifically supported the prohibition language.
The Democratic governor of Kentucky said that the hemp industry is an “important” part of the economy that deserves to be regulated at the state level—rather than federally prohibited, as Congress has moved to do.
Also, a leading veterans organization is warning congressional leaders that the newly approved blanket ban on consumable hemp products could inadvertently “slam the door shut” on critical research.
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Since 2018, cannabis products have been considered legal hemp if they contain less than 0.3 percent delta-9 THC on a dry weight basis.
The new legislation specifies that, within one year of enactment, the weight will apply to total THC—including delta-8 and other isomers. It will also include “any other cannabinoids that have similar effects (or are marketed to have similar effects) on humans or animals as a tetrahydrocannabinol (as determined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services).”
The new definition of legal hemp will additionally ban “any intermediate hemp-derived cannabinoid products which are marketed or sold as a final product or directly to an end consumer for personal or household use” as well as products containing cannabinoids that are synthesized or manufactured outside of the cannabis plant or not capable of being naturally produced by it.
Legal hemp products will be limited to a total of 0.4 milligrams per container of total THC or any other cannabinoids with similar effects.
Within 90 days of the bill’s enactment, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other agencies will need to publish list of “all cannabinoids known to FDA to be capable of being naturally produced by a Cannabis sativa L. plant, as reflected in peer reviewed literature,” “all tetrahydrocannabinol class cannabinoids known to the agency to be naturally occurring in the plant” and “all other known cannabinoids with similar effects to, or marketed to have similar effects to, tetrahyrocannabinol class cannabinoids.”
The language slightly differs from provisions included in legislation that had previously advanced out of the House and Senate Appropriations panels, which would have banned products containing any “quantifiable” amount of THC, to be determined by the HHS secretary and secretary of agriculture.
Read the full text of the new hemp bill below:
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