Last week an Ohio congressman co-sponsoring one of the hemp bills laid out the plan to stop the December 11 ban: take the three regulatory bills sitting in the House, merge them into one package after the election, and attach it to whatever must-pass bill moves in December. Read the three side by side and the agreement is real: about 5 milligrams of THC a serving, 21 and up, real testing, a certificate of analysis behind a QR code, naturally derived cannabinoids in and lab-made synthetics out. That was the industry's own wish list two years ago. It is now the consensus position of both parties. The disagreement is plumbing. One bill runs everything through FDA with no tax. One runs beverages through Treasury like alcohol, with an excise and a three-tier system. One does both. And here is the detail founders should actually care about: only one of the three repeals the ban. Another exempts beverages and leaves every gummy and tincture on the wrong side of the line. The third doesn't mention the ban at all. The merge has to get that right in about five weeks of a lame-duck session, which is why the most likely December outcome is still another short extension, not a rulebook. A lot can change politically between now and then. But if the framework is already written and the fight is only over who collects the tax, the question for brands isn't whether regulation is coming. It's whether your product fits in the 5-milligram box all three bills already drew.