White House Formally Backs Congressional Fix for Hemp CBD Ban

A federal ban on most hemp-derived CBD products is five months from taking effect, and the White House is now formally on record pushing Congress to stop it.

The Office of Management and Budget inserted language into a statement of administration policy released June 4, 2026, calling on Congress to rewrite the federal definition of hemp-derived cannabinoid products before the November deadline. The statement, accompanying the FY 2027 Agriculture Appropriations Act as it passed the House, says the administration “welcomes the opportunity to work with the Congress to, at a minimum, update the statutory definition of final hemp-derived cannabinoid products to allow Americans to benefit from access to appropriate full-spectrum CBD products while preserving the Congress’s intent to restrict the sale of products that pose serious health risks.”

That is the most formal White House statement yet on a problem the administration helped create: President Trump signed the law that triggered the ban in November 2025.

What the Law Actually Does

The government funding package Congress passed to end a 43-day shutdown in November 2025 included a provision that overhauled the federal legal definition of hemp. Where the 2018 Farm Bill — which Trump also signed, during his first term — legalized hemp products based on a delta-9 THC threshold measured by the plant’s dry weight, the newer law switched to a “total THC” standard and imposed a hard per-container cap. Starting November 12, 2026, any finished hemp-derived cannabinoid product containing more than 0.4 milligrams of total THC per container falls outside the legal definition of hemp and is treated as a controlled substance.

The practical impact on the full-spectrum CBD market is severe. A typical full-spectrum CBD gummy or tincture currently contains between 2.5 and 10 milligrams of THC — far above the new container limit. The law also bars synthetic and lab-converted cannabinoids like delta-8 THC. The U.S. Hemp Roundtable has estimated the revised definition would eliminate upward of 90 to 95 percent of hemp-derived products currently on the market.

Full-spectrum CBD — the category the White House is most explicitly trying to protect — is distinct from high-potency intoxicating hemp products. Full-spectrum formulations retain trace amounts of naturally occurring THC alongside CBD and other plant cannabinoids. Those trace amounts push many products over the container threshold even though they carry no meaningful intoxicating effect, which is precisely the collision the administration is flagging.

An Escalating White House Push

The OMB statement is the most formal move in what has been a sustained campaign to get Congress to act. In December 2025, within weeks of signing the law that imposed the ban, Trump issued an executive order directing senior White House officials to work with Congress on updating the hemp statutory definition. In April 2026, he posted publicly on Truth Social calling on Congress to fix it — “We must get this done RIGHT and FAST,” he wrote — urging lawmakers to preserve access to full-spectrum CBD while maintaining restrictions on products that pose health risks.

That same April, White House legislative and domestic policy staff transmitted draft legislative language to Rep. Andy Barr’s office in Kentucky, asking the congressman to advance language that would update the statutory definition while preserving restrictions on higher-risk products. The move put the executive branch directly in the legislative drafting process on Capitol Hill.

The administration’s Medicare program adds institutional weight: the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services launched a program this year to cover hemp-derived CBD products for eligible seniors — a benefit that would be complicated if the November ban takes effect without amendment.

Where Congress Stands

The administration’s pressure has so far run into a House floor process that has been resistant to hemp fixes. The House Rules Committee voted on June 2, 2026 to block four hemp-related amendments from reaching the floor of the same Agriculture Appropriations Act the OMB statement accompanied — proposals ranging from a two-year delay to a comprehensive regulatory overhaul, all excluded from the structured rule governing floor debate. A full account of what the Rules Committee blocked and why is covered in MyCannabis’s earlier reporting on the vote.

Several standalone legislative vehicles remain in play. The Hemp Planting Predictability Act, a bipartisan House bill co-sponsored by Rep. Jamie Comer (R-KY), would push the effective date to November 2028, buying time for a permanent federal framework. In the Senate, a proposal from Oregon’s delegation would replace the per-container prohibition with a federal regulatory framework allowing up to 5 milligrams of THC per serving on edibles — a substantially more permissive standard that would also establish age restrictions, mandatory testing, and packaging rules. Neither bill has advanced through committee.

The Senate Appropriations Committee had been scheduled to take up its own FY 2027 Agriculture spending bill on June 5, 2026, but that markup was cancelled amid disagreements over unrelated provisions. The Senate bill’s trajectory is now the most urgent near-term question for whether a hemp fix can move through the appropriations process before the year ends.

With standalone bills stalled and the House appropriations door closed, the window for a legislative fix is narrowing. Congress wrote this November deadline into law in 2025. Whether it acts to undo it — and on what terms — is now squarely a Senate question.