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\n

President Donald Trump and hemp industry lobbyists are hoping to win a final vote on Capitol Hill next week to skirt a ban on intoxicating products \u2014 with shutdown politics as leverage.<\/p>\n

Nine months ago, Congress cleared a bill to close a loophole created in 2018 that allowed the sale of some hemp-derived products containing types of THC colloquially known as \u201cdiet weed.\u201d That ban is supposed to take effect in mid-November, or roughly 11 weeks, to limit overall THC levels in hemp products that can get people high \u2014 including gummies, canned drinks, pills and vapes.<\/p>\n

But Trump and industry leaders successfully lobbied Senate leaders to add language to a government funding patch earlier this month to delay the ban until mid-December, with the administration promising instead to finalize regulations cracking down on how the products are made and sold.<\/p>\n

Now House Republican leaders are aiming to clear that bill<\/u><\/a> for Trump\u2019s signature early next week, according to three people granted anonymity to disclose private discussions. And many GOP lawmakers are not pleased at the prospect of being rolled.<\/p>\n

Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.) told reporters last week that he expected House lawmakers would \u201ciron out\u201d some \u201csticking points\u201d with the Senate-passed funding bill, \u201cparticularly the hemp issue,\u201d rather than pass the legislation without changes \u2014 which appears to be GOP leadership\u2019s current plan.<\/p>\n

Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) was more blunt: \u201cit is morally reprehensible to threaten a shutdown over a loophole Congress agreed to close to less than a year ago,\u201d he said in a statement Thursday.<\/p>\n

Yet despite fierce pushback from lawmakers warning that the intoxicating products are harming Americans, hemp industry leaders are preparing for a victory, betting members of Congress ultimately care more about swiftly passing legislation to avert a Sept. 30 government shutdown before the midterms.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny effort to try to shut down the government \u2014 over a one-month delay on a hemp issue \u2014 I don’t think is going to fly well with most members of Congress,\u201d Jonathan Miller, a top lawyer for the U.S. Hemp Roundtable advocacy group, said in an interview this week.<\/p>\n

The White House did not respond to a request for comment about its plans for imposing new rules on hemp products in the coming months. But the Trump administration is expected to need more time than mid-December to finalize regulations, so hemp industry representatives are discussing a \u201cregulatory bridge\u201d that would impose temporary rules while continuing to avoid a full ban, according to Miller.<\/p>\n

That could include restricting purchase to adults age 21 and older, blocking imports from China, mandating certain manufacturing practices, cracking down on copycat products that look like popular candy or potato chips and requiring transparency in product labeling.<\/p>\n

While lawmakers have been back home over their summer break, hemp industry leaders have fanned out across the country to make their case for this plan. \u201cThe hemp industry does not have an August recess,\u201d Christopher Lackner, head of the Hemp Beverage Alliance, said in an interview this month<\/u><\/a> of the group\u2019s work to facilitate passage of the Senate-passed funding bill.<\/p>\n

Trump administration officials have also been telling reluctant lawmakers they will use the one-month delay to work on regulations. \u201cThe White House has committed to me that they’re committed to regulate the industry,\u201d Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said in an interview this month.<\/p>\n

Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), who fought in the Senate to retain the ban as originally intended, said White House officials have said \u201cthey don\u2019t want another extension, and I agree with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement, Ricketts said that \u201cmanufactured high-THC products like gummies and drinks are putting our kids in the hospital\u201d and need to be taken \u201coff our shelves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some supporters of the ban say the White House and industry are just employing delay tactics to get to December, when lawmakers will face another pressure campaign to delay the ban while they are motivated to avert a shutdown before leaving town for the holidays.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they’re really after is to try to jam this on some must-pass, end-of-the-year funding,\u201d Budd told reporters earlier this month. \u201cThat\u2019s really what this is about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Budd fought to block the delay in the Senate as part of the government funding measure, but his amendment to that end was shot down 61-32 before the chamberpassed the legislation<\/u><\/a>, sending it on for House action.<\/p>\n

Trump personally called Budd after the senator filed the amendment and talked about creating federal regulations<\/u><\/a> for hemp products, according to a Senate aide granted anonymity to describe the private discussion.<\/p>\n

Days later, Budd demanded a vote on the amendment anyway and continues to slam the hemp industry.<\/p>\n

“It is clear that businesses that sell unregulated, intoxicating products will stop at nothing to protect their bottom line, even at the expense of children\u2019s health and safety,\u201d he said in a statement this week.<\/p>\n

Besides lawmakers fighting to ban intoxicating hemp products, others are pushing alongside the White House and industry for federal regulations.<\/p>\n

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-W.Va.) has crafted legislation that would direct the Food and Drug Administration to create federal rules for intoxicating hemp products and wants to see mandates for third-party testing, as well as new THC limits per serving.<\/p>\n

Griffith told reporters Thursday the \u201cdeadline push\u201d in the Senate-passed government funding measure \u201cis not long enough\u201d to finalize necessary regulations.<\/p>\n

Since state limits for THC vary widely throughout the country and the federal government has taken years to step in since the hemp loophole was created in 2018, Griffith argued it makes more sense to regulate the intoxicating products than to enact a federal ban.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat horse is out of the barn,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat we need to do is corral it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelsey Brugger, Amanda Friedman and Rachel Shin contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump and hemp industry lobbyists are hoping to win a final vote on Capitol Hill next week to skirt a ban on intoxicating products \u2014 with shutdown politics as leverage. Nine months ago, Congress cleared a bill to close a loophole created in 2018 that allowed the sale of some hemp-derived products containing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26940\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}