The future of the U.S. hemp industry remains on the line as lawmakers once again have placed a five-year farm bill reauthorization package on the back burner and instead agreed to a one-year extension in the final days of the current Congress.
Congressional leaders in Washington released a 1,547-page spending bill on Dec. 17 that intends to keep the federal government funded through March 14 to avoid a partial shutdown amid a looming deadline for the end of this week if they don’t act.
While the stopgap spending measure includes the final financial priorities under a divided government before Republicans take control of the Senate next month, it also includes funding for several other legislative matters that lawmakers failed to address earlier this year. Specifically, that includes reauthorizing the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (the 2018 Farm Bill).
U.S. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., and U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., released statements on Tuesday regarding the agriculture provisions that were included in the continuing resolution. Specifically, the spending measure provides $10 billion in economic disaster assistance.
“The bill released this evening provides much-needed relief for agriculture, including $10 billion in emergency economic aid, which will help address the significant losses incurred due to both weather and market-related issues,” Thompson said. “This addition of economic support is an important financial bridge, one that will help mitigate the severe downturn in the agricultural economy.”
Thompson also said that he’s looking ahead to the next Congress, when he hopes “to move quickly to enact a five-year farm bill” that minimizes the need for annual economic aid. In addition, he said he plans to coordinate with Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., who will take over the chair position of the upper chamber’s committee.
Stabenow, who still controls those reins until the end of the year, said she’s pleased that congressional leaders secured the economic and natural disaster relief for farmers in the spending measure without “pitting one part of the farm bill against another.”
Stabenow also offered disappointment that the $10 billion investment is being paid for by increasing the federal deficit rather than increasing the funds available in the conservation title of the farm bill by “bringing conservation and rural energy funding from the Inflation Reduction Act into the farm bill,” as Democrats previously proposed.
“I believe it is political malpractice,” Stabenow said. “While I am relieved that we reached an agreement, it’s shocking that Republican leadership failed to support such a common sense and bipartisan proposal.”
To be clear, the main intent of the farm fill’s one-year extension in the stopgap measure is to keep popular programs used by farmers and rural communities funded. The extension makes no changes to how hemp or cannabinoids like delta-8 or delta-9 THC are defined and regulated. Those anticipated changes hinge on the specifics of a five-year reauthorization.
For those keeping tabs, the 2018 Farm Bill was initially up for reauthorization in 2023 before being extended to 2024. And now it’s being extended again, leaving a continued uncertainty for farmers of all commodities, including hemp.
RELATED: 2023 Farm Bill Passage Could Face 1-Year Delay, According to Key US Senator
First adopted in 1933 as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal to address the nation’s lingering struggles from the Great Depression, the farm bill is renewed roughly every five years to address the nation’s current agricultural and food policies through a variety of programs.
It wasn’t until the 2018 rendition that the farm bill addressed the industrial hemp industry through federal legalization and regulation beyond state pilot programs, defining the plant as having no more than 0.3% delta-9 THC on a dry-weight basis. That potency limit is determined during a pre-harvest test that the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires to be performed within 30 days of a harvest.
However, the 2018 Farm Bill, which does not regulate finished goods, unintentionally legalized intoxicating hemp-derived products, such as delta-8 and delta-9 edibles, which have proliferated interstate commerce in the years since despite cannabis remaining a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substance Act.
In May 2024, House Republicans’ version of a five-year farm bill reauthorization included an amendment from Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., that would factor in tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA) to the definition of hemp. A THC precursor, nonintoxicating THCA turns into intoxicating THC when heated up through a decarboxylation process.
In some states, high-THCA cannabis flower products have been labeled as hemp and sold outside the licensed cannabis market under the perceived loophole that these products contain less than 0.3% delta-9 THC until the end user lights up.
But the inclusion of THCA in the farm bill’s definition of hemp would “functionally end” most hemp farming, even for the non-cannabinoid fiber and grain markets, Jonathan Miller, general counsel at the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, told Cannabis Business Times when the House’s amendment progressed earlier this year.
RELATED: THCA in the Farm Bill: Amendment Goes Far Beyond Closing ‘Loopholes’
While congressional leaders said at the end of 2023 that they would prioritize a five-year reauthorization package for the farm bill in 2024, Senate Democrats did not offer their legislation until mid-November, when Stabenow introduced the upper chamber’s version.
The nearly 1,400-page bill—the Rural Prosperity and Food Security Act—released on Nov. 18, attempted to provide $39 billion in new resources to “keep farmers farming, families fed, and rural communities strong,” she said.
The Democrats took some heat for not releasing their proposal until then, Jonathan Havens, partner and co-chair of the Cannabis Law Practice at Saul Ewing LLP, told CBT last month.
“But that doesn’t change the fact that the draft is out there,” he said. “Will [next Congress] start over with their own draft? Will they take the draft and red-line it significantly? That somewhat remains to be seen.”
The Senate Democrats’ proposal also intends to redefine the 0.3% potency limit on hemp to include “total” THC content—including THCA—rather than limiting the scope to just “delta-9” THC as currently defined under the 2018 Farm Bill.
This change could close what many state-elected officials, prohibitionists and cannabis operators alike view as a loophole that’s led to the multibillion-dollar market for intoxicating hemp-derived products that aren’t required to adhere to the same stiff regulatory standards of cannabis, from lab testing to age-gating and child-proof packaging.
“Senate Democrats have it in their mind that by addressing THCA, we could stamp out a significant portion of the [intoxicating] products in the market,” Havens said. “There’s also some discussion of synthetics and a lot of the products in the industry, the delta-8 products, for example, you take the CBD, and you synthesize that into delta-8. The bill is talking about now not using some of these extracts for synthetic preparations.”
Although the 2024 Farm Bill reauthorization proposals offered by House Republicans and Senate Democrats will not be taken up in the lame-duck session this Congress, the hemp-related provisions could be retained or served as a starting point for a 2025 Farm Bill.
However, regardless of a new definition for hemp, the fact remains that the farm bill strictly deals with agriculture, Havens said. In other words, the absence of federal requirements on testing finished products will continue to leave the door open for potential loopholes, even if the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hasn’t approved hemp derivatives in ingestible formats.
“Some people have said to me, ‘Well, do we think we’re going to get some movement on FDA’s authority here on what products are legal?’” Havens said. “And I always say, well, we might, but not in this legislation, because this is an ag bill. This deals with hemp as a crop, not hemp as a finished product. Where that cuts off and picks up somewhat remains to be seen. So … you kind of start to think, is this germane to the bill?
“This has always presumably been a crop discussion, not a finished product discussion.”
Even if the definition of hemp changes in the farm bill for agriculture, Havens said that until there is an FDA crackdown, there will still be companies putting intoxicating hemp derivatives into edible products and claiming the law is on their side.
Congressional leaders in Washington agreed to invest $10 billion in economic disaster assistance for agriculture in their continuing resolution. Read More
