Federal Funding Deal Revives National THC Crackdown, Threatening Texas’ Hemp Industry

By Marijke Friedman, The Texas Tribune
November 13, 2025

AUSTIN, TX - As part of the spending deal to end the government shutdown, federal lawmakers approved a provision cracking down on hemp products containing THC, restoring a ban Texas Republicans sought to impose earlier this year.

The funding package, passed by the U.S. House and signed into law by President Donald Trump on Wednesday, includes language banning the sale of hemp-derived products with more than 0.4 milligrams of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the psychoactive element in marijuana. The measure would criminalize almost all consumable hemp products nationwide.

The provision was added at the last minute to a bill that provides yearlong funding for the Department of Agriculture. It closes what proponents of the ban call a “loophole” from the 2018 farm bill that allowed the hemp industry to take off without federal regulations. Unless Congress reverses course, the ban is set to start a year after the legislation goes into effect. Opponents of the provision warn it will effectively shut down Texas’ $8 billion hemp industry and the thousands of jobs associated with the sale of consumable THC products.

In the lead-up to the vote that sent the funding deal to President Donald Trump’s desk, Republicans in Texas’ congressional delegation were divided over the hemp ban. Sen. John Cornyn supported the provision, voting against an amendment that proposed to strip the hemp language, while Sen. Ted Cruz was one of two Republicans who voted for the amendment, arguing that hemp and marijuana should be regulated at the state level rather than through a “one-size-fits-all federal standard.”

The House did not take a one-off vote on the hemp ban, but some Texas Republicans weighed in against the idea, despite voting for the overall funding package. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Houston, said he believes a ban should be decided by individual states.

“That wasn’t going to make me vote against this and keep the government shut down,” he said. “We’ll leave that issue for another day.”

Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Richmond, agreed that he would prefer the hemp ban was not part of the funding deal, but said reopening the government was more important.

Other Republicans, including Rep. Keith Self, R-McKinney, and Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Waco, praised the bill for closing the loophole.

Sessions, a vocal proponent of the hemp ban, said the bill would close a loophole “that allowed intoxicating and dangerous high-potency THC products like Delta-8 to flood our communities.”

The votes in Congress reopen an issue that caused a rift between Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Gov. Greg Abbott earlier this year, when the governor vetoed legislation spearheaded by Patrick that would have banned THC products in Texas altogether. THC products have been legal in Texas since 2019 when the state passed legislation mirroring the 2018 farm bill.

Though the 2019 law does not allow products to contain more than trace amounts of delta-9 THC, it did not establish that same threshold for other hemp derivatives. Patrick and other critics said the hemp industry exploited that loophole to prop up more than 8,000 retailers selling THC-laced edibles, drinks, vapes and flower buds that provide similar effects to marijuana.

Hemp manufacturers and retailers, along with most lawmakers, agreed that stricter oversight and licensing requirements were needed for the largely unregulated industry, but Patrick insisted on a full ban. The Republican-controlled Legislature sent a ban to Abbott’s desk, but he vetoed the measure, calling for lawmakers to enact strict regulations instead.

After the Legislature failed to reach a middle ground, Abbott issued an executive order with new regulations for THC products, including a ban for minors, which Patrick said at the time was a “state seal of approval on the current THC market.”

The federal ban is a major win for Patrick, who received backlash from the right over his unbending push for a ban, as conservative opponents said he was turning his back on veterans and small-business owners. The majority of Republicans in Texas want the state’s current marijuana laws left alone or made less strict, according to a poll released by the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin in September.

Patrick applauded Congress for passing the THC ban, writing on social media Wednesday that “consumable, highly intoxicating hemp-derived THC is essentially banned in America” as part of the federal funding deal.

“The THC ban has been a priority for me, and I appreciate Congress addressing this important issue at the national level,” he posted after the Senate vote Monday. “I believe this ban will save a generation from getting hooked on dangerous drugs.”

The federal crackdown on hemp products is a letdown for advocates in Texas who spent months fighting to defeat the proposed statewide ban.

Heather Fazio, the director of the Texas Cannabis Policy Center, said it was disappointing that the issue was rearing its head again in Congress on the heels of the “long, drug out fight for freedom” against the state-level ban.

The federal ban will hurt entrepreneurs and consumers in the state who have come to rely on hemp products, Fazio said.

“Banning it and sending us back into an era of prohibition is going to cause far more harm than good,” she said. “The U.S. should regulate rather than prohibit hemp products.”

Opponents of the ban emphasize that millions of Americans have relied on these hemp-derived products since they were legalized by Congress in 2018.

“Hemp is too vital to the American economy and to the livelihoods of millions to be dismantled by rushed, politically driven legislation,” the Texas Hemp Business Council said in a statement Tuesday. “As we proved in Texas, we will continue to pursue every legal and legislative option to overturn these harmful provisions and restore a fair, science-based system that continues to protect minors, ensure product safety and preserve the economic opportunities Congress created in 2018.”

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This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.