House Passes Stopgap Funding Bill 370-48, Delays Hemp THC Ban and Grant Overhaul Until December

The House voted 370-48 Tuesday afternoon to pass the Senate's stopgap funding bill, sending it to President Trump's desk and keeping the government open through Dec. 11. Nineteen Republicans and 29 Democrats voted no. Trump is expected to sign it.

That clears the government's biggest to-do item off the table before the Nov. 3 midterms. It also means the two parties are punting the actual fight over full-year spending, including Trump's push for a $1.5 trillion military budget, until after voters decide who controls Congress.

What's in the Bill

The bill funds agencies at current fiscal 2026 levels. For the Pentagon, that means weapons programs keep running and troops keep getting paid without a lapse, according to Breaking Defense. House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., called it a "clean, short-term continuing resolution" that "protects our national security."

It does NOT include Iran war funding Trump had requested in a supplemental request. Rep. Betty McCollum, the ranking Democrat on the House defense appropriations subcommittee, said she was "very proud" that money was left out, calling Iran "his war of choice."

Two riders are drawing the most fire from the right. First: a one-month delay of the federal ban on intoxicating hemp-derived THC products, gummies and drinks, which was set to take effect Nov. 12 under a law Trump signed last year. Second: a delay of a proposed Office of Management and Budget rule that would let politically appointed bureaucrats, rather than independent peer-review panels, control grant decisions at agencies like the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation, according to Scientific American.

The Senate also added language blocking the Department of Homeland Security from transferring funds to Border Patrol, and delayed a separate rule giving Trump political appointees more power to freeze federal grants to states, according to the Independent and PBS. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on House Appropriations, called that delay "an important first step" but said more needs to be done, arguing "whether a community receives disaster relief should not depend on who they voted for in the last election."

The Hemp Fight Isn't Over

The delay is a temporary win for an industry that didn't exist in its current form before the 2018 Farm Bill accidentally legalized it. The U.S. Hemp Roundtable told members the extra month lets them "make every day count" lobbying for a regulatory framework instead of a ban. Christopher Lackner of the Hemp Beverage Alliance said the industry wants rules that keep products from minors while killing off "bad actors that sell untested, high-potency, copycat gummies."

Not everyone in the cannabis space is happy. Chris Lindsey of the American Trade Association for Cannabis and Hemp said his group is "disappointed" the ban got delayed at all, arguing the current loophole "empowers bad actors" and threatens public health. Unregulated THC products with no age gates and no testing standards are a real problem, and a one-month punt doesn't fix that. The question is whether Congress uses the next month to actually write rules, or just kicks the can again in December.

Conservatives Aren't Happy Either

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., and Rep. Keith Self, R-Texas, ripped the Senate for tucking the hemp delay and grant rule change into the bill. "The Senate did violence to our bill," Self told Fox News Digital, also objecting to passing it under a suspension vote that required Democratic support instead of a simple majority.

Fox News framed the vote as Democrats caving, running with the headline "Democrats blink in shutdown fight, hand Trump and GOP win before midterms," and noting Speaker Mike Johnson said Republicans avoided "the threat of another Democratic shutdown." Other outlets, including PBS, NBC and the Independent, described the vote as straightforwardly bipartisan, noting DeLauro personally urged Democrats to support it after winning concessions on the grant rules and Border Patrol funding. Democrats got real policy wins in the bill, and Republicans got the shutdown avoided. Neither side got everything.

What Happens in December

The delay buys the hemp industry, the grant-rule opponents, and Congress itself exactly one more month before this fight resurfaces. Cole said lawmakers won't know whether they can finish all 12 full-year appropriations bills "till after the election," since the midterm results will reshape everyone's leverage. Whoever wins the House majority in November walks into the Dec. 11 deadline with a very different hand to play than the one on the table today.