Congress Punts on Hemp Policy — Hiding It in a Must-Pass Spending Bill

If you’re going to act, act openly. Debate it. Disclose it. Decide it. Don’t bury it. America deserves better.

America’s capital used to be about deliberation. We debated policy. We held hearings. We hashed out trade-offs. But now we are in the age of spectacle and subterfuge — and the latest example is how the Senate decided to “solve” the hemp-derived cannabinoid issue: not with a thoughtful law, but by burying sweeping language in a must-pass spending measure.

The deal in the FY 2026 Agriculture/FDA appropriations package effectively declares that any “hemp-derived cannabinoid product … is limited to a total of 0.4 milligrams of total THC or any other cannabinoids with similar effects.” And it defines “hemp-derived cannabinoid product” as “any intermediate or final product derived from hemp … intended for human or animal use through any means of application or administration.” This is not regulation. It is prohibition by the back door.

Yes, I agree with restricting non-naturally occurring cannabinoids like delta-8 THC and synthetic analogues. The regulatory gap opened by the 2018 Farm Bill invited exact exploitations: quick “hemp” analogues, untested psychotropic isomers, and retail shelves full of sketchy products. That needed to be cleaned up.

But what the Senate is doing is not cleaning up. It is blowing up the entire industry. By redefining hemp to include “any cannabinoid with similar effects as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)”, then capping every container at 0.4 mg THC equivalents, they turn what was legal commerce into an existential threat overnight.

Farmers, manufacturers, retailers and yes, patients who have come to rely on hemp-derived relief are all collateral damage. These are not small plants in the wind—they’re entire supply chains, state pilot programs, rural jobs, and agricultural investment. Repealing this via a spending bill is the worst form of policy: rushed, opaque, with no oversight, no expert hearings, no input from those who built the business under one regulatory regime and now find that regime changed mid-game.

Congress is simply punting. They are taking a hard problem—how to regulate intoxicating hemp derivatives—and delaying real debate by hiding it in the appropriations process. That’s a cheap cop-out. Worse: it signals to the world that U.S. policy will be reactive and hidden, not open, deliberative and fair.

What we should have instead is a clear statute: one that distinguishes between naturally occurring cannabinoids, engineered isomers, and licensed therapeutic preparations; that sets potency standards based on science; that preserves legitimate wellness uses, agricultural opportunity, and patient access while protecting the public from uncontrolled psychoactive products. We should also engage the USDA, FDA, DEA and state regulators in transparent rule-making.

Instead, we get midnight riders, disguised policy change, and political expediency masked as legislative action. Senator Mitch McConnell and others helped create the 2018 Farm Bill—and now they’re tearing it up in the dark, calling it “closing a loophole.” But closing a loophole doesn’t require obliterating the entire market.

My recommendation: pull the hemp section out of the spending bill. Congress should schedule hearings, invite farmers and manufacturers, calibrate potency and licensing, and pass a focused bill that addresses the challenge—rather than using the funding bill as a one-size-fits-all hammer.

Because when policy is made in the shadows, people pay. Not just big corporations. Farmers. Patients. Small business. Jobs. Access. If you’re going to act, act openly. Debate it. Disclose it. Decide it. Don’t bury it. America deserves better.