McConnell adds hemp ban to shutdown bill, threatening $28 billion industry and 300,000 jobs

President Trump signed legislation ending the government shutdown on Nov. 12, 2025, which included Section 781 — a provision limiting hemp products to no more than 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container. The provision takes effect Nov. 12, 2026, giving the industry one year to comply or shut down.

A single hemp gummy typically contains 2.5 to 10 milligrams of THC — six to 25 times the new legal limit. The U.S. Hemp Roundtable estimated Section 781 will eliminate 95 percent of the $28 billion hemp retail market by wiping out full-spectrum tinctures, hemp seltzers, delta-8 and delta-10 products, and most CBD oils currently sold.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) authored the 2018 Farm Bill provision that legalized hemp and created the conditions for the hemp THC market to grow into a $28 billion industry. He added Section 781 to the 2025 shutdown bill and said he's closing the loophole his own legislation created — calling it his final act before retirement. He retired from the Senate at the end of the 119th Congress.

Whitney Economics, a hemp and cannabis research firm, provided the estimate that 300,000 jobs are at risk across the supply chain — farmers, extractors, manufacturers, logistics firms, and retailers. The jobs are concentrated in states where hemp farming was revived after the 2018 Farm Bill, including Kentucky, Colorado, Oregon, and North Carolina.

Section 781 passed inside a must-pass government funding bill without a standalone floor vote, committee hearing, or public comment period. This process — attaching major industry-altering policy to shutdown legislation — bypassed the normal legislative debate that a $28 billion industry regulation would ordinarily require. The same approach has been used to pass riders on abortion funding, financial regulations, and drug policy in previous continuing resolutions.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) opposed the ban, arguing it overrides state regulatory frameworks that dozens of states had developed for hemp products and destroys farm livelihoods in his own state. Paul's opposition represented a rare intra-party split on an agriculture provision directly affecting Kentucky's hemp farmers, who had built their businesses under McConnell's 2018 legalization framework.

The alcohol industry lobbied actively for the ban as hemp THC beverages cut into beer and spirits sales. Members of Congress who received alcohol industry campaign contributions voted for the shutdown bill containing Section 781, though no specific lobbying disclosure shows a direct link between the contribution and the vote. The Center for Responsive Politics tracks alcohol industry contributions as among the most consistent in Congress.

Section 781's new definition of hemp counts all forms of THC — including THCA, delta-8, delta-10, and any other cannabinoid with similar psychoactive effects — toward the 0.4 mg container limit. The 2018 Farm Bill only measured delta-9 THC by dry weight percentage, creating what industry groups called a regulatory gap that the hemp market grew into. Section 781 closes that gap entirely.