The wording used in an associated bill has caused backlash, and the proposed definition for hemp in America was changed again.
House Appropriations Committee has released a bill for Fiscal Year 2026 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies. This document included an updated definition for hemp to close the loophole which has led to the proliferation of intoxicating, unregulated hemp products throughout the United States.
The new terminology was not without its problems. For example, it referred to hemp products that contain “quantifiable amounts” of THC and other cannabinoids which have the same effects. The U.S. Hemp Roundtable says that this will eliminate the majority of hemp products, which are not intoxicating, currently available nationwide. Many of these contain trace levels of THC.
The legislation was amended by a manager to clarify the definition. in a report Attached to the Bill. The bill states that the sentence below should be added at the bottom of the page with the entry “Quantifiable limits Task Force”.
The Committee has stated that it does not want to affect industrial hemp cannabinoid-derived products or those non-intoxicating ones with insignificant or trace amounts of THC.
U.S. Hemp Roundtable already said this wasn’t good enough and that the Food and Drug Administration had ignored FDA report language on hemp and CBD.
A late 2023 report Brightfield Group estimates that hemp-derived THC sales in the USA were worth $200 millions in 2020. This market is expected to skyrocket up to $2.8billion in 2023. According to a report from 2025, the hemp-derived THC market in the USA was worth $200 million in 2020 and soared to $2.8 billion in 2023.
Of course, if the hemp definition is tightened up enough to exclude such products, the ‘legal’ market boom will likely quickly turn into a bust. The hemp industry is fighting hard to prevent such a scenario from happening, but with the amount of money involved, it’s not surprising that they are.
They say hindsight is 20/20 — and the poor wording of the 2018 Farm Bill that allowed the current situation — which could so easily have been avoided — will be felt for many years to come.