He signed it Wednesday. Most of the federal hemp restrictions now take effect on December 11 instead of November 12. That date is also when the stopgap funding bill expires. One deadline did not move at all.
The hemp industry got its extension. It did not get much else.
On Wednesday, September 2, President Trump signed into law H.R. 6500, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027. The bill keeps the federal government funded through December 11 and, tucked inside it, delays most of the hemp restrictions that were set to take effect on November 12.
Those restrictions come from Section 781 of the appropriations act Trump signed last November. That provision redefines hemp using total THC, expressly including THCA, and caps finished hemp-derived cannabinoid products at 0.4 milligrams per container of total THC plus any other cannabinoids the Department of Health and Human Services determines have similar effects. The U.S. Hemp Roundtable estimates the definition would disqualify roughly 95 percent of the hemp cannabinoid products currently on the market.
The industry now has until December 11 instead of November 12. That is twenty-nine extra days.
Why December 11
December 11 is also the date the continuing resolution runs out. Section 2019 of the bill gives hemp the same deadline.
The hemp delay was written into a stopgap funding bill, so it inherits that bill’s expiration. The new hemp deadline now lands on the same day as the next government funding cliff. If lawmakers need another hemp fix in December, they will be negotiating it in the middle of the next appropriations fight, alongside defense, veterans programs and everything else riding on the next continuing resolution.
A must-pass bill is the most reliable vehicle in Washington for something an industry wants, which is how the delay got through in the first place. It is also the most crowded bill in Washington, and …
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Author: Javier Hasse / High Times
