House Moves to Let VA Doctors Recommend Medical Cannabis

Veterans in states where medical marijuana is legal face a gap their VA doctors currently cannot close. Under existing federal policy, a VA physician can note a patient’s interest in cannabis, talk through the clinical considerations, and document the exchange — but cannot sign the enrollment paperwork that actually gets the veteran into a state medical cannabis program. That work falls to outside providers, often at significant personal expense, even for veterans whose primary healthcare runs through the Department of Veterans Affairs.

A House floor vote expected as early as this week could change that. The House Rules Committee on May 12, 2026, cleared a bipartisan amendment to the fiscal year 2027 military construction and veterans spending bill that would bar the VA from using any appropriated funds to enforce its internal prohibition on VA providers completing state marijuana enrollment forms, issuing medical cannabis recommendations, or making referrals to state-approved cannabis programs.

What the amendment does

The amendment, filed by Reps. Brian Mast (R-FL), Dave Joyce (R-OH), and Dina Titus (D-NV) — co-chairs of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus — targets an internal VA clinical policy last updated in July 2023 that governs how VA providers interact with veterans who use marijuana. Under that directive, VA clinicians may assess and document a veteran’s cannabis use but are explicitly prohibited from recommending it, making referrals for it, completing program enrollment forms, or registering veterans for state-approved programs — grounded in federal drug law’s longstanding classification of marijuana as a controlled substance with no accepted medical use.

The amendment does not repeal or modify the underlying directive. As an appropriations measure, it would prohibit the VA from spending any of the funds it receives under the fiscal year 2027 bill to enforce those specific prohibitions. The practical effect is the same: VA doctors in states where medical cannabis is legal would be free to assist veterans with program enrollment documentation without running afoul of department policy.

For patients, the access gap is concrete. State medical cannabis programs in most jurisdictions require a physician’s written recommendation or enrollment documentation as a prerequisite. Veterans who rely on the VA as their primary healthcare source but want to participate legally in a state cannabis program must currently pay out-of-pocket for a private provider to sign the paperwork their VA doctor is not permitted to sign.

A reform that keeps getting cut

The prohibition on VA provider involvement in state cannabis programs has been federal policy in various forms since at least 2011, most recently restated in the July 2023 directive. Congress has been trying to override it for years.

An identical version of this amendment was adopted by the full House by voice vote as part of the fiscal year 2026 military and veterans spending bill. The provision was subsequently removed before the bill was sent to President Trump for signature, when congressional leadership stripped it from the legislation in November 2025. Similar language had been removed in prior years after passing one or both chambers — a recurring pattern advocates have criticized as allowing members to appear supportive of veterans’ cannabis access without actually delivering the change.

Rep. Mast, a medically retired Army veteran who lost both legs during his service, has publicly characterized each exclusion as harmful to the veterans the provision was designed to help.

What may shift the calculus this year is the changed federal landscape on cannabis scheduling. In April 2026, the Department of Justice issued an order immediately placing FDA-approved marijuana drug products and state-licensed medical marijuana products in a less restrictive drug classification for the first time — the initial step in a broader federal rescheduling process that is still underway. The VA’s internal clinical directive was grounded in part in cannabis’s position under federal drug law, and advocates see the April 2026 order as weakening at least some of the legal justification that has sustained the ban.

What the floor vote means

Advancing through the Rules Committee clears the amendment for debate and a vote during full House consideration of the fiscal year 2027 spending bill, expected before the end of this week. Passage at that stage would mark the same milestone this measure reached during the fiscal year 2026 cycle.

The operative risk remains what it has always been: conference. If the Senate advances its own version of the military and veterans spending bill and the chambers move to reconcile differences, the VA cannabis provision will face the same pressure it has faced in prior cycles. Both chambers have shown willingness to pass the language; neither has put it into a final bill that became law. Whether conference negotiators keep it in or trade it away — as has happened before — is where the measure’s fate will actually be decided.

A companion amendment cleared for the floor alongside the cannabis provision would direct VA to prioritize research into areas including psychedelic therapies, oncology, and traumatic brain injury care. That amendment was filed by Reps. Lou Correa (D-CA) and Jack Bergman (R-MI), co-chairs of the Congressional Psychedelics Advancing Therapies Caucus.