White House Pushes 30-Day Hemp Ban Delay as Wiles Family Lobbying Fuels GOP Revolt
Updated
Updated · The Daily Beast · Aug 6
White House Pushes 30-Day Hemp Ban Delay as Wiles Family Lobbying Fuels GOP Revolt
3 articles · Updated · The Daily Beast · Aug 6
Summary
A Senate stopgap funding bill now carries a 30-day delay to a November hemp-derived THC ban after the White House abruptly pressed lawmakers to reverse course.
MC Nutraceuticals CEO Bret Worley—chief of staff Susie Wiles' son-in-law—urged industry allies to call senators, saying the sector's “survival” depended on the funding provision.
Republican resistance flared in a meeting with legislative director James Braid, where Tom Cotton attacked hemp products as “gas station marijuana candy” and Josh Hawley called it a “big blow up.”
Ted Budd said he was “dumbfounded” by the switch because Trump signed last year's stricter hemp law, though some Republicans backed a three- to four-week delay as a tolerable compromise.
The episode has become a key obstacle in funding talks and intensified conflict-of-interest scrutiny around Wiles, even as the White House denies she lobbied on hemp.