The intoxicating hemp industry is closing in on a hard deadline, and the senator who put it there has shown no interest in moving it.
A federal ban on hemp-derived THC products takes effect Nov. 12 after Congress folded the restrictions into the funding deal that ended last year's shutdown, and a House panel has already turned away the first wave of bills aimed at unwinding it.
The provision, championed by Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., rewrites the federal definition of hemp set by the 2018 farm bill, capping THC at 0.4 milligrams per container and pulling most gummies, vapes, and seltzers off legal shelves once it takes effect.
The Food and Drug Administration is directed to publish lists of regulated cannabinoids before then.
McConnell, the architect of hemp legalization seven years ago, has cast the new restrictions as a fix for what he calls a loophole that flooded gas stations and smoke shops with synthetic THC products marketed in candy-style packaging.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., tried to strip the language during the shutdown endgame in November and lost on a 76-24 motion to table, with only Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, joining him from the GOP.
Cruz told the Hemp Industry and Farmers of America on a recent call that the math has not changed.
"Given that if Mitch is actively leaning on people not to do anything, my guess is the votes don't move significantly," he said, according to a transcript reviewed by The Hill.
Cruz framed the dispute as a personal contest between McConnell and Paul and suggested any opening would come only after McConnell retires at year's end.
That successor, in all likelihood, is Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., who won the GOP Senate primary on May 19 with 64% of the vote when the race was called by The Associated Press, following a late endorsement from President Donald Trump.
He faces Democrat Charles Booker in November. Cruz told the industry group Barr would be "a very different senator" from either Kentuckian and might shift the dynamic next year.
He filed an amendment to the FY27 agriculture appropriations bill proposing a taxed-and-regulated framework that would keep intoxicating hemp products on the market under federal labeling and age rules, telling a HIFA meeting last month he wants a "level playing field" with alcohol.
The House Rules Committee blocked his amendment on June 2, along with a two-year delay from Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C., and a recriminalization delay from Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., withdrew his own defunding amendment minutes before the panel met.
Barr is expected to refile as standalone legislation, and Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., chair of the Energy and Commerce health subcommittee, is working on a separate approach.
The alcohol and marijuana industries are lobbying against any rollback, and the political case for moving before the midterms is thin: The ban does not bite until after Election Day, and industry sources told The Hill hemp does not register as a voting issue.
As of June 7, no rescue bill has cleared either chamber, and the clock keeps running.
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.