Kentucky Republican Congressman James Comer has joined a legislative effort to delay the enforcement of new federal regulations on hemp that are currently set to take effect later this year – ones that some farmers and business owners say would devastate the hemp industry.
A provision in the federal spending bill passed late last year – which ended the longest federal government shutdown in the country's history – bans the sale of hemp-derived products with more than 0.4 milligrams of THC per container. Advocacy group U.S. Hemp Roundtable estimates that restrictions that stringent would affect 95% of hemp extract products that are currently on the market. Currently, the ban is supposed to go into effect in November.
In an effort to alleviate the concerns of the hemp industry and people who grow the crop, Comer is cosponsoring a House bill introduced earlier this week by Indiana Republican Rep. Jim Baird that would delay the hemp provision's enforcement date by two years.
The Kentucky congressman joined hemp farmers at a press conference Thursday in Washington D.C. to tout the new bill he said would help stabilize the near future of the hemp industry.
"American farmers are facing serious headwinds, a lot of challenges for farmers all across America. The last thing they need is inaction from Washington that puts a growing, multi-billion dollar industry at risk," Comer said.
Comer has a history of supporting the hemp industry dating back to his time as Kentucky's agriculture commissioner, where he pushed for Kentucky to allow industrial hemp production. After being elected to Congress, Comer worked with Sen. Mitch McConnell to legalize industrial hemp at the federal level. In September, prior to the spending bill's passage, Comer signed onto a bipartisan letter to House leaders asking them to block a proposed change to exclude hemp-derived cannabinoids from the definition of legal hemp.
While he voted in favor of the federal spending bill that included the hemp provision, Comer later said he approved the bill to end a 43-day government shutdown and said he was disappointed that the hemp language was included in it.
Brian Furnish is a hemp farmer from Kentucky who spoke at Thursday's press conference. He said about 70% of his farm's income comes from growing hemp – but he's already seeing how reactions to the hemp provision still set to take effect within the year are hurting the industry.
"Our buyers are also telling us that we can't ship any more biomass to them until they move their inventory. It's a ripple effect through the whole industry, from the people who make the retail product all the way back to the farmer," Furnish said. "If we can't get an extension and we can't move our 2025 crop, we will not be planting a 2026 crop. We just can't afford to. I mean, we're sitting on a couple million dollars worth of inventory, and that could be detrimental to our farm."
Comer argued that, by passing an extension on the enactment of the hemp provision, the federal government could take that time to develop a regulatory framework that is fair to hemp workers while also allowing the government to "push the bad actors out."
"We must act swiftly to pass legislation that protects jobs, eliminates bad actors, standardizes labeling and requires third party testing," Comer said. "These steps are essential to providing certainty for business owners and confidence for consumers."
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