House Panel Advances Bill to Bar Cannabis From Federal Workers’ Comp

Federal workers injured on the job won’t be able to get medical cannabis covered by the federal workers’ compensation program — even if ongoing rescheduling proceedings clear cannabis’s path under federal law. A House spending subcommittee made that explicit on June 5, 2026, writing the restriction directly into next year’s spending bill.

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies voted to advance a fiscal year 2027 spending bill that includes a rider barring the Department of Labor and its Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs from covering marijuana or any cannabis-derived substance as a compensable medical treatment under any federal workers’ compensation program — including the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act, which is the primary benefits program for injured federal civilian workers.

The critical phrase in the bill’s language: the prohibition applies “regardless of any change in the scheduling of marijuana” under the federal controlled substances framework. The subcommittee didn’t just block current coverage — it explicitly locked out future coverage even if DEA rescheduling goes through.

What FECA covers and what this blocks

The Federal Employees’ Compensation Act, administered through the Department of Labor, covers medical treatment and wage replacement for federal civilian employees hurt or sickened at work. A postal worker who injures their back, a federal firefighter with smoke-related lung damage, a park service ranger hurt on trail maintenance — all can file claims through this program when their injuries are work-related.

Under existing federal law, cannabis’s Schedule I classification for most purposes has generally meant FECA coverage of medical cannabis isn’t available. But the April 23, 2026, Justice Department order shifted that landscape: Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche placed both FDA-approved cannabis products and state-licensed medical cannabis in Schedule III — a direct response to President Trump’s December 2025 executive order on medical marijuana research. That action opened a genuine legal question: if state-licensed medical cannabis is now Schedule III, could OWCP treat it as it would any other prescribed medication?

The subcommittee’s rider answers that question in the negative, preemptively. Whether broader rescheduling is completed through the ongoing DEA process or not, the spending restriction would prohibit OWCP from authorizing, reimbursing, or even recognizing cannabis as a covered benefit for the 2027 fiscal year.

The DEA hearing backdrop

The subcommittee vote came three weeks before a significant milestone in the rescheduling process. As announced in the same April 23 Justice Department release, the DEA has an administrative hearing on broader cannabis rescheduling scheduled to begin June 29, 2026, running through mid-July. That proceeding will determine whether cannabis as a whole — not just the FDA-approved and state-licensed medical categories already moved in April — shifts from Schedule I to Schedule III.

The appropriations rider and the DEA hearing process operate on different legal tracks, and that’s precisely the point. The DEA controls scheduling under federal drug law. Congress controls spending. Even a DEA ruling that fully rescheduled cannabis would not, by itself, override a spending restriction enacted by Congress. The subcommittee is using the appropriations process to put a ceiling on what rescheduling can accomplish in this specific program.

The same logic has appeared elsewhere in this appropriations cycle. Separate House Appropriations Committee actions have directed federal agencies to continue drug-testing government employees and safety-sensitive workers like truck drivers and airline pilots for cannabis regardless of scheduling changes. A prior committee vote moved to block federal officials from taking further steps on broader rescheduling. Physicians and a pharmaceutical company have also challenged the administration’s April scheduling order in court, adding another layer of uncertainty to the rescheduling timeline.

A legislative ring fence around federal programs

The workers’ comp rider fits into a broader posture taking shape in this year’s spending cycle. GOP lawmakers have pushed back on using the rescheduling shift to unlock retroactive tax relief for cannabis businesses, arguing that the scheduling change shouldn’t automatically translate into federal program advantages. Taken together, the appropriations bills moving through committee are building a legislative ring fence around federal cannabis policy — not by reversing the administration’s scheduling moves, but by ensuring those moves don’t change the practical landscape of federal programs.

The FY2027 Labor-HHS bill also carries a longstanding rider blocking the use of funds to promote legalization of any Schedule I drug, language that has appeared in federal spending bills for decades. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has sought to strip that provision, arguing it impedes psychedelic research, but those efforts have not succeeded. The bill additionally includes restrictions on syringe exchange funding and a prohibition on safe consumption sites.

The bill still needs full committee approval, a floor vote in the House, a parallel process in the Senate, and presidential signature before it becomes law. Senate appropriators have historically taken different positions on cannabis-related riders, and conference negotiations could alter or remove the workers’ comp restriction. For now, the subcommittee vote establishes where House Republicans want to draw the line: rescheduling changes the scheduling classification; it doesn’t change what federal workers can access through the programs their agencies run.