The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies voted 8-6 along party lines Thursday to advance a Fiscal Year 2027 spending bill that includes a provision barring federal funds from being used to reschedule or remove marijuana from the schedules established under the Controlled Substances Act.
The action directly contradicts the Trump administration, which announced last week it is proceeding with cannabis rescheduling. The Department of Justice, under Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, issued an order that immediately moved state-licensed medical cannabis products and FDA-approved marijuana products to Schedule III. A broader administrative hearing on rescheduling is set for this summer.
Similar anti-rescheduling language has cleared the committee in prior years but has never become law. Because Blanche's order took effect immediately, it remains unclear whether the rider would affect businesses and patients already covered by the Schedule III change. If the full House and Senate pass the provision and President Donald Trump signs it, however, it could halt the summer hearing and block further rescheduling action. The bill now goes to the full Appropriations Committee, scheduled to consider it May 13.
The bill also carries the longstanding rider—active since 2014—protecting state medical cannabis programs from Justice Department interference. This year's version adds Nebraska for the first time; voters there approved medical cannabis in 2024, but the state had been omitted from prior appropriations language. A new subsection (b), which has never previously been enacted, would permit DOJ to still enforce 21 U.S.C. 860, which imposes heightened penalties for distributing cannabis within 1,000 feet of schools, playgrounds, or public housing. The bill also retains a rider shielding state hemp research programs from DOJ and DEA interference under Section 7606 of the Agricultural Act of 2014.
Separately, the full House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved a different spending bill whose accompanying report raises health-risk concerns about cannabis-derived products while encouraging psychedelics research.
These developments emerge as Congress weighs multiple efforts to delay or alter a law set to federally recriminalize hemp THC products later this year.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said this week she supports the administration's rescheduling move, even if it "doesn't quite make all the wrongs right" for those who "had their lives destroyed by the war on drugs."
