‘Devastating’ Hemp Amendment Language Included in FY 2025 Agriculture/FDA Bill

Update, June 11, 6:35 p.m.: The House Appropriations Subcommittee voted to move the bill to a full markup review.

The House Appropriations Committee released the Fiscal Year 2025 bill for the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Subcommittee on June 10, and included in it is amended language from the draft 2024 Farm Bill amendment offered by Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., which hemp advocates say would be “devastating” to the industry.  

The amendment in the FY 25 Agriculture/FDA bill proposes to change the definition of hemp to include only components of the Cannabis sativa L. plant and all derivatives, including extracts, and seeds that include less than 0.3% total THC (including THCA) on a dry-weight basis, and to exclude cannabinoids that are not capable of being naturally produced in the cannabis plant. This would make products containing intoxicating hemp-derived cannabinoids (e.g., delta-8 THC, delta-10 THC) illegal, shuttering what has become a multibillion-dollar market in the U.S., and close what many perceive as a "loophole" in the 2018 Farm Bill enabling the legal sale of products containing those cannabinoids. It would also close the "THCA" loophole, through which cannabis seeds and flower—which contain low percentages of THC but higher percentages of THCA—have been sold as legal hemp across state lines. (THCA is the form of intoxicating THC that converts to THC when heated.)

The bill will be considered in subcommittee June 11 at 6 p.m.  

RELATED: THCA in the Farm Bill: Amendment Goes Far Beyond Closing ‘Loopholes’

“We saw the announcement yesterday and have already approached congressional members who are supportive of advancing industrial hemp (fiber and grain) who are members of the full Appropriations committee, requesting they address the unforeseen consequences of adopting the Miller amendment, in markup,” Geoff Whaling, chair of the National Hemp Association, told CBT.

“It is deeply disappointing that Rep. Andy Harris has inserted the now-infamous, hemp-industry-destroying Mary Miller Amendment within the FY 25 Agriculture/FDA Appropriation bill­—without any hearing, any consultation with U.S. farmers or any vote from subcommittee members,” Jonathan Miller, General Counsel of the U.S. Hemp Roundtable, said in a statement.

RELATED: Farm Bill Amendment Would ‘Devastate’ Hemp-Derived Cannabinoid Industry, Close THCA Loophole for Seed and Flower Sales

“While states as politically diverse as Florida, Illinois and Louisiana have recently rejected monopolistic efforts to ban hemp products, a few conservative politicians have chosen to abandon conservative principles by turning their backs on farmers, veterans, and small businesses, and by rejecting states’ rights to regulate by forcing federal prohibitory preemption,” Jonathan Miller said. “Contrary to advocate pronouncements that their goal is ‘to close the Delta-8 THC loophole,’ the Mary Miller Amendment would ban 90 to 95 percent of all ingestible hemp products in the marketplace—including the vast majority of non-intoxicating, wellness-improving CBD supplements—while wreaking havoc for U.S. hemp farmers, including fiber and grain, by redefining hemp in a matter that would make most crops non-compliant with a new THC standard.”

Jonathan Miller said the U.S. Hemp Roundtable will be asking the full Appropriations Committee to “excise the Mary Miller Amendment from the final text.”

“And of course, we will be fighting efforts on the House floor and in the Senate to include this hemp-killing language in any bill, be it appropriations or the Farm Bill,” he said. “In the end, we are confident that once members of Congress are briefed on the full implications of this effort, they will stand on the side of farmers, small businesses and veterans, and reject it.”

RELATED: Criminalization Will Make Delta-8, Delta-10 THC, etc., ‘All the More Dangerous’ Says Harvard Medical Instructor and Leading Cannabis Expert