The House Rules Committee on Tuesday cleared an amendment to the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act that would bar the VA from enforcing Veterans Health Directive 1315 provisions blocking its providers from helping veterans enroll in state medical cannabis programs, with a floor vote expected later this week.
The amendment, introduced by Reps. Brian Mast (R-FL), Dave Joyce (R-OH), and Dina Titus (D-NV)—co-chairs of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus—prohibits spending any appropriated funds to enforce the directive’s ban on VA providers completing forms, making referrals, or registering veterans for state-approved marijuana programs.
Under current VA policy, providers may discuss cannabis with patients but cannot fill out the paperwork required for state program enrollment, leaving veterans to pay for outside providers instead.
Similar veterans’ medical marijuana measures have cleared both chambers in previous years but have never been enacted. When comparable language was cut from the final spending bill sent to President Donald Trump last year, Mast called the omission “ridiculous.” “It was a great and easy opportunity to do so, and a sensical thing to move forward—and detrimental to veterans to not do so,” he said.
The amendment comes weeks after the Trump administration rescheduled medical marijuana under federal law, which advocates say could improve prospects for the veterans-focused reform.
The Rules Committee also cleared a separate amendment from Reps. Lou Correa (D-CA) and Jack Bergman (R-MI), co-chairs of the Congressional Psychedelics Advancing Therapies Caucus, which adjusts the VA’s Medical and Prosthetic Research funding to emphasize oncology, traumatic brain injury care, psychedelic therapies, and assistive devices.
Elsewhere in Congress: the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies last month advanced a bill to block further cannabis rescheduling steps; the House Appropriations Committee approved a spending bill and report raising concerns about cannabis-derived products while encouraging psychedelics research; the full House passed a Farm Bill with hemp provisions but no language to delay the scheduled recriminalization of hemp THC products; and a new Congressional Research Service report details the scope and limitations of the marijuana rescheduling action.
