Senate Rejects Rand Paul’s Effort to Remove Hemp Criminalization From Gov’t Funding Bill

The Senate voted down an amendment filed by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Monday that would remove the recriminalization of many hemp products from the currently proposed funding bill that would reopen the federal government.

The Details: Paul’s amendment was rejected 76-24, with Paul, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), and 22 Democrats voting in favor. A provision included in the funding bill would recriminalize the unregulated sale of “intoxicating hemp-based or hemp-derived products, including Delta-8, from being sold online, in gas stations, and corner stores, while preserving non-intoxicating CBD and industrial hemp products.” These products were decriminalized by the 2018 Farm Bill.

For Context: The provision was first included in the House's funding bill for the Department of Agriculture, but later removed from the Senate version due to a disagreement between Paul and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Although McConnell championed hemp legalization in 2018, he now opposes it. Hemp industry groups, who said they were caught by surprise when they saw the provision was included in the current funding bill, said if the bill passes, America’s $28 billion hemp industry would disappear.

Key Quote: Paul wrote on X before Monday’s vote, “Just to be clear: I am not delaying this bill. The timing is already fixed under Senate procedure. But there is extraneous language in this package that has nothing to do with reopening the government and would harm Kentucky’s hemp farmers and small businesses. Standing up for Kentucky jobs is part of my job.”

How The Media Covered It: Before the vote, outlets across the spectrum framed Paul’s objection to the new provision as something that was slowing the reopening of the federal government. After the rejection, media across the spectrum framed it as a troubling development for the hemp industry. The Hill (Center bias) prominently wrote, “The hemp industry is scrambling to stave off what representatives are saying could be an extinction-level event engineered by Republicans in Congress.”

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