House GOP leadership faces a balancing act next month as they work to avert a partial government shutdown while navigating internal tensions over the Senate-proposed delay of a ban on sales of certain intoxicating hemp-derived products.
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris has been sounding the alarm since the Senate on Aug. 8 passed a stopgap spending bill that would extend federal funding authority that’s set to expire Sept. 30, as well as pause a looming THC-infused hemp ban, through Dec. 11.
He hasn’t explicitly said he’ll seek to defeat the continuing resolution if the hemp ban delay isn’t stripped. But Harris has made clear in social media posts and interviews with local media outlets this month that he will fight to undo the provision.
“Let’s be clear: these are not harmless hemp products. They’re intoxicating, unregulated, and widely available resulting in devastating numbers of children being hospitalized,” Harris, R-Md., wrote Tuesday on X. “The federal government has failed to act for far too long. I’m fighting in Congress to change that.”
Harris, the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee chair, alongside Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., helped write the initial ban into law last year, which otherwise would take effect Nov. 12 while the Senate is on recess.
Even without McConnell present due to his extended medical leave, the one-month delay in the Senate bill tied that chamber in knots for days as opponents tried to strip the provision.
Twenty-one Senate Republicans — about 40 percent of the GOP conference — ultimately voted against tabling an amendment from Ted Budd, R-N.C., to strike the delay from the underlying bill. That’s likely a decent proxy for where House Republican sentiment falls on the issue as well.
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