US Senate budget talks stall over hemp THC ban delay as December 11 deadline enters the bill

Senate leaders have folded a delay to the planned re-criminalization of hemp THC products into their temporary funding bill, but that same hemp provision is now holding up the package. For high-risk operators, the only thing worse than a new restriction is a restriction whose start date keeps moving while everyone waits to see whether it survives the legislative sausage factory.

1. The Senate is negotiating a spending bill that would extend federal funding until December 11 and push back the planned ban on most hemp products to the same date, about a month later than the original timetable.
2. Reporters said on Wednesday that the hemp provision has become the latest sticking point in the talks, with several senators pushing to keep the ban on its original November 12 effective date.
3. A bipartisan coalition of 35 state and territorial attorneys general asked Congress on Wednesday to stick to the original schedule, while eight senators support an amendment that would preserve the originally planned ban on intoxicating THC products.
4. U.S. Hemp Roundtable called the proposed delay “good news” and said it plans to launch a campaign this week to press Congress for more permanent legislation. Jonathan Miller, general counsel for U.S. Hemp Roundtable, said: “As Mark Twain might have said, ‘Reports of hemp’s death have been greatly exaggerated.'”
5. The industry says it wants a compromise that would regulate intoxicating hemp products rather than eliminate them. The sector was estimated to have exceeded $28,000 million last year, while supporting 300,000 jobs and generating $1,500 million in state tax revenue.

Both the Senate and the House need to approve the bill before any delay takes effect, and the Senate has scheduled an initial procedural vote for Monday night. The fight matters beyond hemp itself: when Congress rewrites the rules around a large consumer category, payment processors, acquiring banks, and compliance teams usually get the operational bill a little later.