Congress quietly raises hemp's legal THC limit, opening door to unregulated intoxicants
S. 2112 — HEMP Act of 2025 · Filed by Rand Paul (R-KY) · Introduced Jun 18, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill amends the federal definition of hemp under the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946, raising the legal threshold for delta-9 THC (the psychoactive compound in cannabis) from 0.3% to 1% on a dry weight basis. It also tightens testing standards (requiring measurement uncertainty ≤0.075%) and mandates that anyone transporting hemp carry either a state/tribal license or a lab certificate proving THC compliance. The USDA must update regulations within 90 days without public comment.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core function is to relax federal hemp production standards and streamline compliance, benefiting agricultural producers and the hemp/cannabis industry. However, the mechanism—raising THC thresholds and expediting rulemaking without public input—creates potential consumer-protection gaps.
What the text implies
- Raising the legal THC threshold from 0.3% to 1% may enable the sale of intoxicating hemp-derived products (delta-9 THC gummies, edibles, beverages) under the 'hemp' label with minimal federal oversight, potentially circumventing state cannabis regulations and creating a loophole for unregulated intoxicants.
- The 90-day regulatory revision without notice-and-comment rulemaking (APA § 553 waiver) bypasses public input and scientific review, preventing consumers, public-health advocates, and state regulators from commenting on testing standards or labeling requirements before they take effect.
- Retail sectors (TGT, EL, CHD) mapped as regulatory-exposed may face inventory and liability risk if state attorneys general challenge hemp-derived THC products as unlicensed cannabis, or if consumer litigation arises over undisclosed intoxication.
- The bill does not mandate clear labeling, potency disclosure, or age-gating for hemp products, creating a gap between federal legality and consumer awareness—minors may unknowingly purchase intoxicating products.
- State and tribal governments retain authority to set stricter standards, but the federal floor of 1% THC may preempt or undermine state cannabis licensing and tax regimes, creating regulatory arbitrage.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill expands legal hemp production and may lower compliance costs for farmers and reduce regulatory friction, benefiting agricultural producers and potentially consumers through lower prices. However, raising the THC threshold to 1% significantly increases the risk that products marketed as 'hemp' will contain intoxicating levels of THC, potentially exposing consumers—especially minors—to unregulated psychoactive products without clear labeling or potency disclosure, and it bypasses normal p
Who stands to gain
- hemp producers and cultivators
- hemp-derived cannabinoid manufacturers (delta-9 THC, delta-8, HHC producers)
- retail chains selling hemp products (general merchandise, convenience stores, online retailers)
- agricultural input suppliers and testing laboratories
Named in the bill
USDA (Department of Agriculture), Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946, State departments of agriculture, Tribal governments, Hemp producers and transporters, Testing laboratories, Retail chains (Target, Estée Lauder, Philip Morris, Church & Dwight, Tyson Foods)
Where it stands
- Jun 18, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jun 18, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $100,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 2 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Rand Paul, the sponsor, reported $94,645 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Diageo Americas, Inc. — $100,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 17, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,746 characters) on Aug 17, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 17, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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