The U.S. Senate has voted to retain a one-month delay on the federal crackdown on intoxicating hemp products by tabling an amendment to a federal funding bill that would have kept the ban at its original start date of November 12, The Hill reports.
Introduced by North Carolina Sen. Ted Budd (R) and nearly a dozen bipartisan lawmakers, senators rejected the amendment overnight on Saturday in a 61-32 vote.
While President Trump (R) signed the ban into law as part of a funding bill to reopen the federal government last year, the White House has since pushed for lawmakers to change or delay the rules to protect full-spectrum hemp products, which the new restrictions would target once the ban takes effect.
Hemp industry representatives are hopeful that the delay will give the extra time they need to pursue federal regulations to save the multi-billion-dollar hemp industry.
”The next chapter begins today. The Hemp Beverage Alliance stands ready to work with Congress, the White House and stakeholders throughout the country to pass federal legislation that is strong, sensible, reliable, and prioritizes public safety.” — Christopher Lackner, founder and president of the Hemp Beverage Alliance, in a statement
Meanwhile, Budd called the nationwide sale of intoxicating hemp products “a public health crisis that deserves this Senate’s immediate attention.”
“Our children should never be the testing ground for an industry willing to exploit a loophole in federal law for profit,” he said in the report.
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