A major alcohol industry trade association says the U.S. House of Representatives’s passage last week of a Farm Bill without including provisions to call off the federal recriminalization of hemp THC products represents a “missed opportunity.”
“A ban will not remove these products from the market—it will push consumers toward unregulated, online channels with no age verification, no product standards and no accountability,” Dawson Hobbs, executive vice president of government affairs for Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA), said in a press release on Monday.
The House last week voted 224-200 to pass the Farm Bill, formally known as H.R.7567, the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026. While the legislation does contain some provisions aimed at reducing regulatory burdens for producers of industrial hemp, it does not include any language to alter or delay the impending ban on hemp THC products.
“WSWA has long believed that intoxicating beverages should be subject to baseline federal regulations that allow for additional state-specific regulatory solutions,” Hobbs said. “The alcohol industry has 90 years of experience proving that responsible regulation works.”
“The 2026 Farm Bill’s failure to address the November ban on intoxicating hemp products is a missed opportunity,” he said. “We urge the Senate to act before November 2026 to replace this ban with a durable federal framework that actually protects consumers.”
Bipartisan lawmakers had filed amendments to the bill to regulate hemp THC products and delay the ban, but the sponsors withdrew the proposals for unknown reasons. A separate amendment to speed up recriminalization of the products was also filed, but the House Rules Committee did not allow it to advance to floor consideration.
Hemp derivatives with less than 0.3 percent delta-9 THC on a dry-weight basis were federally legalized under the 2018 Farm Bill that President Donald Trump signed during his first term in office. But late last year, Trump signed new legislation containing provisions that will redefine hemp to make it so only products with 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container will remain legal after November 12.
While the hemp THC regulation and ban delay amendments didn’t make it into the current Farm Bill, it does include several sections that concern cannabis grown by farmers for industrial purposes such as fiber and grain.
For example, the legislation would amend existing statute related to the development of industrial hemp production regulatory plans by states and tribes—including surrounding polices for testing, sampling, background checks and record-keeping.
The Senate is expected to consider its own version of the Farm Bill in the coming weeks and months, and hemp industry advocates hope lawmakers in that chamber will take action to avert the scheduled ban on THC products.
In March, WSWA launched a campaign pushing Congress to call off a scheduled ban on hemp THC beverages and instead regulate the products for consumer access.
The efforts includes an educational microsite on the issue that offers resources on the issue and argues that “the same regulatory system that has worked for alcohol should be applied to intoxicating hemp products.”
In particular, the group is supporting an approach for hemp drinks that would include federal licensure of suppliers and distributors, a federal tax, independent testing requirements and the regulation of trade practices such as a prohibition on slotting fees, while allowing states to regulate the products in their own markets.
In an op-ed for Marijuana Moment last year, WSWA’s president and CEO argued that regulation of hemp products is superior to prohibition.
A separate newly launched group, the Beverage Alcohol Merchants Coalition (BAMCO), is also pushing for a delay in the federal recriminalization of hemp THC products. Its founding members include Total Wine & More, BevMo! by Gopuff, ABC Fine Wine & Spirits, Spec’s Wine and Spirits & Finer Foods, as well as a group of hemp product wholesalers.
Meanwhile, White House officials recently provided feedback on pending legislation to create a regulatory framework for hemp.
Last month, Vince Haley, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council and James Braid, assistant to the president for legislative affairs, sent hemp policy suggestions to Rep. Andy Barr (R-KY), who has been helping to lead efforts to enact regulations for the plant as an alternative to prohibition.
“We appreciate your work to advance the policy of” an executive order Trump signed in December that included provisions seeking to protect Americans’ access to CBD products, the staffers wrote in a letter to the congressman.
“We are transmitting for your consideration draft legislative text and comments to address the statutory definition of final hemp-derived cannabinoid products in order to allow Americans to benefit from access to appropriate full-spectrum CBD products while preserving the Congress’s intent to restrict the sale of products that pose serious health risks,” the White House officials said, according to a social media post containing a screenshot of the letter. “We are available for discussion and further technical assistance.”
The attachment with the administration’s proposed legislative text has not been publicly released, and the White House and Barr’s office did not respond to Marijuana Moment’s request for further details.
It’s not clear from the letter’s text whether the White House was proactively sending legislative proposals to the lawmaker or if they were replying to something his office submitted—though two cannabis industry sources suggested to Marijuana Moment that Barr first sent language to the administration, which then provided technical feedback.
Trump last month pushed congressional lawmakers to take action to amend the currently scheduled hemp ban, which he suggested threatens to federally recriminalize full-spectrum CBD products.
“I am calling on Congress to update the Law to ensure that Americans can continue to access the full-spectrum CBD products they have come to rely on, and that help them, while preserving Congress’s intent to restrict the sale of products that pose Health risks,” the president said in a Truth Social post on Thursday, the same day his administration announced it is moving forward to reschedule marijuana.
“We must get this done RIGHT and FAST, especially for those who saw that CBD helps them,” he said. “Plus, I am told it will also help our GREAT FARMERS, who we love, and will always be there for.”
Rep. Jim Baird (R-IN) had filed a hemp ban delay amendment before the House Agriculture Committee when it took up the Farm Bill in March, but that panel’s chairman determined that the proposal was not germane to the legislation.
A number of other bipartisan hemp reform bills are pending in Congress.
Last month, for example, Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Joni Ernst (R-IA) filed the Hemp Safety Enforcement Act, which would effectively let states opt out of the federal recriminalization of hemp THC products that is set to be enacted later this year.
Ernst later withdrew her name as a cosponsor of the legislation, however. Her office did not reply to Marijuana Moment’s request for clarification on the move.
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A U.S. Department of Agriculture report published last month shows that farmers in the U.S. grew three-quarters of a billion dollars worth of hemp crops in 2025—a 64 percent increase from the prior year.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration last month launched a new initiative to cover up to $500 worth of hemp-derived products each year for eligible Medicare patients. The program being implemented by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) focuses largely on CBD but also allows a certain amount of THC in products.
Anti-marijuana organizations filed a lawsuit suit against the Medicare hemp coverage policy, and lawyers for Health and Human Services Sec. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and CMS Director Mehmet Oz recently filed a brief asking that the case be dismissed.
Meanwhile, the White House Office of Management and Budget has been holding a series of meetings about a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) CBD products enforcement policy.
FDA also issued guidance making clear that it does not intend to interfere with implementation of the Medicare hemp-derived products coverage plan.
CMS separately finalized a rule that will allow coverage of some hemp products as specialized, non-primarily health-related benefits through Medicare Advantage plans.
As hemp products have become more popular with consumers, some large brands are attempting to get in on action.
Major retailer Target, for example, is expanding its participation in the hemp-derived THC beverage market. Last year, the company began a pilot program involving sales of cannabis drinks at 10 select stores in Minnesota. That apparently went well, and now the company has obtained licenses from Minnesota regulators to sell lower-potency hemp edible products—including THC drinks—at all 72 of its stores in the state.
