A bipartisan pair of U.S. House lawmakers has introduced legislation that would create a federal regulatory system for hemp-derived THC beverages while allowing their continued sale to adults.
The Beverage Regulatory Parity Act, introduced today by Representatives Beth Van Duyne (R-TX) and Greg Landsman (D-OH), would allow hemp beverages containing up to 5 milligrams of total intoxicating THC per serving to be sold to those 21 and older.
The legislation would establish a three-tier distribution structure for the products modeled after the system long used for alcoholic beverages, creating separate roles within the supply chain.
Under the proposal, hemp THC beverages would also be subject to a new federal excise tax of 8 cents for every milligram of intoxicating THC they contain. That is lower than the 10-cent-per-milligram tax included in an earlier version of Van Duyne’s proposal.
The potency standard has also been revised. An earlier draft would have allowed up to 5 milligrams of delta-9 THC per serving, while the newly introduced legislation instead applies the 5-milligram limit to total intoxicating THC.
Federal oversight would be divided among the Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Those agencies would be responsible for developing requirements covering areas such as product testing, packaging and labeling, as well as allowable serving and container sizes.
The proposal comes as the hemp beverage industry faces a major change in federal law later this year. Legislation enacted in November 2025 established a new definition of legal hemp that, absent further congressional action, will restrict finished hemp-derived products to no more than 0.4 milligrams of total THC and certain related cannabinoids per container. That standard is currently scheduled to take effect November 12 and would exclude most currently available intoxicating hemp beverages from the federal definition of hemp.
The bill was introduced just two days after the Senate approved H.R. 6500, a federal spending bill that would postpone most of those restrictions from November 12 until December 11. The House must still approve the legislation before it can be sent to President Donald Trump. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), who supported keeping the delay in the bill, said the short extension would give Congress and the administration additional time to negotiate more comprehensive hemp legislation.
The newly introduced bipartisan measure would instead establish a dedicated federal framework for hemp THC beverages, regulating them more similarly to alcohol rather than allowing them to fall under the upcoming restrictions affecting the broader intoxicating hemp market.
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