President Donald Trump has called on Congress to act urgently to prevent a federal ban from effectively wiping out approximately 95 percent of the United States CBD and hemp product market, warning that millions of Americans who rely on full spectrum cannabidiol products could be left without access if lawmakers do not move before the November deadline.
The crisis stems from Section 781, a provision tucked inside the November 2025 government funding bill that ended a 43 day shutdown. The provision rewrote the federal definition of legal hemp for finished consumer products, capping the total THC content allowed per container at just 0.4 milligrams, a threshold so low that the vast majority of CBD products currently sold across the country would fall outside it when the definition takes effect on 13 November 2026.
Under the 2018 Farm Bill, hemp had been defined as cannabis containing less than 0.3 percent delta-9 THC on a dry weight basis, a definition that allowed the consumer hemp and CBD market to grow into a $28.4 billion industry supporting more than 300,000 jobs, according to the US Hemp Roundtable.
Trump, who signed the shutdown bill containing the new hemp definition into law, subsequently directed his administration through an executive order to work with Congress to find a regulatory pathway preserving consumer access to non-intoxicating full spectrum CBD products while maintaining restrictions on products that pose genuine health risks.
On Truth Social, Trump wrote that he was calling on Congress to update the law and that the reform needed to happen right and fast, particularly for people who had found CBD effective for managing chronic pain.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, led by Dr. Mehmet Oz, launched a CBD pilot programme on 1 April allowing doctors to recommend hemp derived CBD products to eligible Medicare patients and covering up to $500 per year, with products permitted to contain up to 3 milligrams of THC per serving.
The FDA’s commissioner subsequently clarified that the agency would adopt a relaxed enforcement posture toward CBD products eligible under the Medicare scheme, marking the first meaningful shift in FDA policy on consumable CBD in the seven years since the 2018 Farm Bill gave the agency the authority to establish a regulatory framework.
Multiple legislative proposals are now circulating in Congress. Representative Andy Barr of Kentucky drafted the Legal Hemp Protection Act on 19 April, proposing a regulatory framework covering testing requirements, age restrictions of 21 and over, retail licensing standards and milligram caps set by the FDA. Separately, House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer proposed an amendment to the 2026 Farm Bill to delay the ban by one year until November 2027. Senators Rand Paul, Amy Klobuchar and Joni Ernst introduced the bipartisan Hemp Safety Enforcement Act, which would allow states to opt out of the federal recriminalization entirely.
The White House sent draft legislative language directly to Barr’s office, signalling that the administration intends to shape the final text of any reform rather than simply endorse whatever Congress produces.
Industry groups have warned that the 0.4 milligram container cap championed by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell during the original shutdown negotiations is unworkable for the overwhelming majority of full spectrum products on shelves today, and that without congressional action the market effectively ceases to exist in its current form from mid November.