The Senate passed a continuing resolution last night to reopen the government after a prolonged shutdown, but the bill includes a controversial provision that effectively bans many hemp products.
This addition targets intoxicating hemp-derived cannabinoids, undoing key aspects of former President Trump’s 2018 Farm Bill that legalized hemp with less than 0.3% delta-9 THC and spurred a booming industry.
Senator Rand Paul was the only senator to publicly challenge this secret addition, which was slipped into the Department of Agriculture funding section without prior debate. Paul argued that the provision would destroy the hemp industry and harm farmers and businesses in his home state of Kentucky. He proposed an amendment to strip the hemp ban language from the bill, emphasizing its irrelevance to government funding.
However, the Senate voted to table Paul’s amendment, effectively blocking it and allowing the bill to proceed. With the Senate’s approval, the continuing resolution now heads to the House for a vote, where it could become law and implement the hemp restrictions.
The ban outlaws hemp products by redefining hemp to apply the 0.3% THC threshold to total THC—including delta-8 and other isomers—plus any cannabinoids with similar intoxicating effects, while limiting legal products to 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container. It also prohibits synthesized cannabinoids not naturally produced by the cannabis plant and bans intermediate hemp-derived products sold directly to consumers.
This sweeping measure will devastate hemp farmers by forcing closures, eliminating jobs in processing and manufacturing, and shutting down corner stores and online retailers that rely on selling these soon-to-be-illegal products, potentially driving the market underground and eroding consumer safety.
Per a White House official, President Trump “supports the current language in the bill on hemp.”
🚨 URGENT: Hidden provisions in the gov’t funding bill would BAN 95% of hemp products, including CBD, which millions of seniors rely on.
Now, they’re killing it with backdoor language
This isn’t regulation, it’s PROHIBITION
🔊Tell Congress to support common-sense regulation
— Hemp Industry & Farmers of America (@hifa_health) November 11, 2025
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