The long-delayed U.S. Farm Bill is finally moving, but the version passed last week does little more than adapt to a hemp reset already underway after Congress moved last November to shut down a multibillion-dollar intoxicating hemp market.
The House approved the measure Friday in a 224–200 vote, advancing a package that formally separates “industrial hemp” (fiber and grain) from all other production, pushing cannabinoid-linked crops into a stricter regulatory lane.
Those changes mirror the direction set by last year’s appropriations law, effectively bringing farm-level rules into line with a crackdown already underway.
The 2026 Farm Bill is the replacement for the 2018 omnibus agriculture law, which Congress failed to renew on time in 2023 and instead repeatedly extended. The bill — a Senate version of which will also be forthcoming — has become the central legislative vehicle for hemp production policy.
Provisions in the framework, formally the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026, remain onerous by agricultural standards, with hemp still treated as a controlled-risk crop rather than a normal commodity.
In trying to get its arms around hemp cannabinoids, the draft bill narrows the upstream pipeline for CBD while cutting some red tape for grain and fiber growers – then adding some back.
Narrowing stream
For cannabinoid producers, the biggest change is how hemp is tested, with the shift to total THC driven less by agronomic considerations than by efforts to shut down loopholes exploited by the intoxicating hemp market.
The old rule looked only at delta-9 THC at the time of sampling. The new one counts total THC, including THCA, effectively measuring what the plant will become, not just what it shows in the field. That closes a loophole where crops could pass early tests but later exceed the federal limit of 0.3%, because THCA converts into THC during drying and processing.
The result is fewer compliant inputs, higher crop risk, and tighter traceability, all of which narrow the upstream supply of material used for CBD and other derivatives of the hemp flower.
Wither ‘wellness’ CBD
Downstream, the bill leaves core issues unresolved. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration retains authority over finished products – covering safety, dosage, labeling and marketing wellness CBD – while Congress has not used the Farm Bill to establish a clear legal pathway for that compound in food or supplements.
The measure does nothing to delay or revise the federal crackdown on hemp-derived intoxicating products already set in motion by the 2025 appropriations law, which targets synthetic and chemically converted cannabinoids and carries a November 2026 enforcement timeline.
Together, that leaves the cannabinoid sector constrained at the farm level, uncertain at the product level, and facing enforcement that is already moving ahead.
Giveth, taketh
The bill aims to ease the path for fiber and grain operators, but trades that relief for tighter controls, new documentation requirements and stricter enforcement. Growers are no longer judged only on THC levels, but also on whether their production can be verified as consistent with industrial use.
Producers claiming “industrial hemp” status must prove it. The bill requires documentation—such as certified seed tags, sales contracts, Farm Service Agency filings or harvest methods—and those who fail to provide it are subject to the full testing regime.
What is that stuff?
The draft also expands the government’s visibility into hemp production. Producers must now be identified not only by location and output, but by type of production – whether they are growing “only industrial hemp” or hemp for any other purpose – information that is folded into USDA’s law-enforcement information-sharing system.
That reflects how the House draft leaves hemp embedded in a regulatory structure tied closely to law enforcement – an approach no other major U.S. crop faces, and one that is likely to endure, reflecting how the growth of intoxicating hemp products has pulled the crop back toward a regulatory framework shaped by its history as a controlled substance.
Other changes
The draft includes additional provisions that reinforce the split system:
- The felony ban can be relaxed for industrial hemp: The 10-year bar for controlled-substance convictions can be removed for producers designated as only industrial hemp.
- False “industrial hemp” designation gets its own penalty: Knowingly growing inconsistent crops triggers a five-year ban from the program.
- New COA requirement for destroyed hemp: Producers must provide laboratory certificates of analysis for non-compliant crops that are destroyed, adding another layer of documentation and compliance.
- Industrial hemp gets lighter-touch compliance options: States and USDA can allow visual inspections, certified seed or performance-based sampling instead of full testing.
- USDA gets a hemp laboratory accreditation role: The agency, in consultation with DEA, must establish a system to certify testing labs.
The Farm Bill does nothing to delay or revise the federal crackdown on hemp-derived THC products set to take effect later this year, and congressional efforts to intervene have stalled, with competing amendments blocked from reaching the House floor.
Competing frameworks
Beyond the House Farm Bill, the most fully developed policy frameworks so far have come from competing proposals by Kentucky Republican Rep. Andy Barr and Oregon Democrat Sen. Ron Wyden, both of which attempt to address the unresolved question of how cannabinoids should be regulated.
While both proposals aim to rein in intoxicating hemp products and preserve a role for CBD, they diverge sharply in approach—Barr’s Lawful Hemp Protection Act would significantly narrow the cannabinoid market, while Wyden’s Cannabinoid Safety and Regulation Act envisions a broader, federally regulated system.