The federal workers comp medical cannabis question just got answered — with a hard no. The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor-HHS-Education voted 11-7 to advance an FY27 spending bill that bars the Labor Department from using any funds to “authorize, provide, reimburse, or otherwise recognize marijuana or any cannabis-derived substance as a compensable medical treatment or benefit” under any federal workers’ compensation program, as reported by Marijuana Moment.
The “regardless of rescheduling” clause
The provision applies “regardless of any change in the scheduling of marijuana” under the Controlled Substances Act — language designed specifically to neutralize the Schedule III order. The full committee report is at Congress.gov (H. Rept. 119-271). A separate House Appropriations bill directs DOT to keep drug-testing truck drivers, pilots, and other safety-sensitive workers for cannabis “regardless of any future changes” to scheduling.
Why workers comp medical cannabis coverage matters
As Marijuana Moment put it, this is the “second straight appropriations cycle in which House Republicans have used spending bills to insulate federal drug policy from the effects of rescheduling.” Schedule III changed the tax code, not the politics: federal employees with legitimate medical cannabis recommendations still can’t get reimbursed, and federally regulated drivers still lose jobs over legal THC use. Note the contradiction: the same House majority blocking these provisions is the one refusing to vote on the White House’s hemp CBD fix — Washington is fighting itself in public.
Why it matters for the bigger fight
Rescheduling was never the finish line. The downstream battles — workers’ comp, drug testing, 280E relief (see the rescheduling lawsuits piece), and federal benefits — are where the next 12 months get won or lost. If appropriations riders keep stacking, Schedule III ends up a tax event, not a policy revolution. News commentary, not legal advice.
What happens next
This is subcommittee language, not law — it still has to survive full committee, the House floor, a Senate that has shown less appetite for cannabis riders, and conference. Appropriations riders die quietly all the time. But the pattern is what matters: two consecutive cycles of House language insulating federal benefits and testing regimes from rescheduling tells you the appropriations process is now the chosen battlefield for the post-Schedule III fight.
For the roughly 2 million federal civilian employees and the state programs that look to federal practice for guidance, the workers comp medical cannabis question is genuinely consequential: workers’ comp formularies are where medical legitimacy gets operationalized. State programs in New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, and New Mexico already require or permit reimbursement for medical cannabis in workers’ comp claims — the federal government is now deliberately carving itself out of the trend its own rescheduling order accelerated.
Watch the full episode
We covered this story on the June 7 episode of Cannabis Legalization News — Trump Begs Congress to Save CBD: Is the Hemp Ban Backfiring?
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