The quietest threat to the federal cannabis shift is not coming from DEA’s June hearing. It is coming from the House appropriations process. On May 13, 2026, the full House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to mark up the FY2027 Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) bill after the CJS subcommittee approved its version on April 30. Buried in that bill is Section 591, a rider stating that no funds made available by the act may be used to reschedule marijuana or to remove marijuana from the schedules under the Controlled Substances Act.¹²³ That makes the coming markup more than a routine appropriations event. It is a live congressional effort to choke off the executive branch’s marijuana-scheduling authority through the power of the purse.⁴
This development also fits a broader federalism problem WeedPress has been tracking in state controlled-substances frameworks. See our earlier series on federalism and procedure:
https://weedpress.org/category/weedpress-policy-series/
That matters because the federal government has already acted. On April 23, 2026, the Justice Department announced a final order placing FDA-approved marijuana products and marijuana subject to a qualifying state medical marijuana license into Schedule III, and the rule became effective upon publication on April 28, 2026.⁵⁶ At the same time, DOJ said DEA would hold a new hearing beginning June 29, 2026 on broader marijuana rescheduling.⁷ The administration therefore created a two-track federal cannabis system: immediate relief for a narrower medical category, and a separate pending process for broader rescheduling.⁸⁹ Congress is now attempting to cut across that structure before the broader process matures.¹⁰
WeedPress has tracked this exact bifurcation since the April announcement. Our dedicated coverage of the Attorney General’s order emphasized how the narrow medical track validates state medical systems while leaving adult-use markets in limbo.
The first point that needs to be stated clearly is procedural. May 13 is not a full congressional vote. It is a full committee markup in the House Appropriations Committee.¹¹ That distinction matters because a committee markup does not itself become law. Even if Section 591 survives the May 13 markup, the bill would still need to pass the House, survive the Senate, be reconciled if the chambers disagree, and be signed into law.¹² That means no serious analyst should claim that Congress has already blocked rescheduling. But it is equally wrong to treat the markup as symbolic theater. If the full committee keeps the rider, the anti-rescheduling language becomes the official House Appropriations Committee position and enters the next phase of budget politics with real force.¹³
The bill text itself is sweeping. Section 591 says: “None of the funds appropriated under this Act or otherwise made available by this Act may be used to reschedule marijuana … or to remove marijuana from the schedules established under section 202 of the Controlled Substances Act.”¹⁴ That is not narrow drafting. It is written as a broad appropriations prohibition on federal marijuana rescheduling activity.¹⁵ If enacted, it would most clearly threaten further executive-branch steps in the broader rescheduling process, especially the June 29 DEA hearing and the administrative work that follows from it.¹⁶
That last point is where the biggest legal distinction lies. The anti-rescheduling rider most clearly targets the next phase, not the existence of the already-effective April medical rule. The April final order is already on the books and already effective.¹⁷ Treasury and the IRS confirmed on April 23 that they plan to issue guidance addressing the tax consequences of DOJ’s final medical-marijuana rescheduling order.¹⁸ Legal analyses have accordingly emphasized that rescheduling to Schedule III generally removes the § 280E bar for state-licensed medical cannabis operations.¹⁹²⁰²¹²²
This same federal-state tension appears in states like South Dakota with layered controlled-substances statutes.
So the best reading is not that Congress can simply snap its fingers and erase the April 28 medical-only rule overnight. The stronger and cleaner reading is that Section 591, if enacted, would most clearly block further federal spending on broader marijuana rescheduling, including the June hearing and subsequent administrative action, while also creating serious uncertainty around ongoing implementation, defense, and future guidance connected to the partial medical move.²³ That is still a major threat. It just is not the same thing as a clean retroactive repeal statute.²⁴
This is why the rider is best understood as both a cannabis policy fight and a separation-of-powers fight. DOJ has already used existing Controlled Substances Act mechanisms to partially reschedule a defined medical category and tee up broader proceedings.²⁵ The House appropriators are now trying to use annual spending legislation to deny funding for that same executive-branch scheduling activity.²⁶ Industry reporting has accurately framed this as another attempt to strip or limit White House and DOJ rescheduling power after a similar effort failed months earlier.²⁷²⁸ In January 2026, congressional leaders dropped a prior attempt to block marijuana rescheduling in final appropriations negotiations, which means the current rider has to be taken seriously but not treated as inevitable.²⁹
That history matters. A similar anti-rescheduling push advanced before and then died in the endgame. That means Section 591 is dangerous, but it is not destiny.³⁰ The May 13 markup is therefore best seen as an escalation point, not an endpoint. If the rider survives markup, it becomes more politically serious. But until it is enacted, the current federal structure remains the one DOJ announced: medical marijuana under qualifying state licenses has moved into Schedule III, other marijuana remains in Schedule I, and a broader DEA hearing is still scheduled for June 29.³¹³²
The same friction is playing out in South Dakota, where I plan to file suit this summer challenging the state’s continued Schedule I placement under its own statutory criteria.
The business stakes are obvious. The medical-only move is already creating winners and losers inside the industry. Operators with qualifying state medical licenses now stand to benefit from immediate federal tax relief and a more favorable federal posture, while adult-use operators remain outside that partial recognition.³³³⁴ The same product sold through a medical side and an adult-use side may now be treated differently as a matter of federal law, even where the underlying product, facility, and staff are effectively the same.³⁵ That is one reason the rider is not just an abstract fight about administrative law. It threatens a concrete business split that is already underway.³⁶
It also threatens businesses by freezing uncertainty in place. Medical operators need to know whether the April rule will be followed by a broader federal realignment or whether Congress will trap the system in a half-built state. Adult-use operators need to know whether they remain indefinitely stranded outside the federal shift. Investors and state lawmakers face similar questions.³⁷³⁸
That is why the coming May 13 markup matters more than it looks. It is not final passage. But it is a real attempt to convert quiet appropriations language into a weapon against the administration’s rescheduling agenda.³⁹ WeedPress looked deeper because the danger is not just the existence of Section 591. The danger is that it appears at exactly the moment when the administration has already partially acted, Treasury is preparing tax guidance, DEA is preparing a broader hearing, and the market is trying to figure out whether the federal government means what it just did.⁴⁰
The clean takeaway is this: Congress is not voting next Wednesday to finally stop marijuana rescheduling. But the House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to mark up a bill containing a rider that, if ultimately enacted, would most clearly block further federal marijuana rescheduling work and could materially destabilize the administration’s new two-track cannabis framework. That is not the end of the story. It is the next serious test of whether Trump’s partial medical-cannabis rescheduling move will develop into something broader—or get boxed in by Congress before it does.⁴¹
Footnotes
¹ House Comm. on Appropriations, Full Committee Markup of Fiscal Year 2027 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Bill and Fiscal Year 2027 Legislative Branch Bill (scheduled May 13, 2026, 11:00 a.m.).
² House Comm. on Appropriations, Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee Legislative Activity (Apr. 30, 2026).
³ House Comm. on Appropriations, Rogers, Cole at FY27 Commerce, Justice, Science Subcommittee Markup (Apr. 30, 2026).
⁴ FY27 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies—Subcommittee Mark § 591 (Apr. 30, 2026).
⁵ Press Release, U.S. Dep’t of Just., Justice Department Places FDA-Approved Marijuana Products and Products Containing Marijuana Subject to a Qualifying State-Issued License in Schedule III (Apr. 24, 2026).
⁶ Schedules of Controlled Substances: Rescheduling of Food and Drug Administration Approved Products Containing Marijuana and Products Containing Marijuana Subject to a Qualifying State-Issued License, 91 Fed. Reg. ___ (Apr. 28, 2026).
⁷ Schedules of Controlled Substances: Rescheduling of Marijuana, 91 Fed. Reg. ___ (Apr. 28, 2026).
⁸ Press Release, U.S. Dep’t of Just., supra note 5.
⁹ Gabrielle Canon, Trump Administration Move to Reclassify Cannabis Sparks Confusion, The Guardian (Apr. 30, 2026).
¹⁰ FY27 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies—Subcommittee Mark, supra note 4, § 591.
¹¹ House Comm. on Appropriations, Full Committee Markup, supra note 1.
¹² See U.S. Const. art. I, § 7.
¹³ House Comm. on Appropriations, supra notes 1–3.
¹⁴ FY27 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies—Subcommittee Mark, supra note 4, § 591.
¹⁵ Id.
¹⁶ Schedules of Controlled Substances: Rescheduling of Marijuana, supra note 7.
¹⁷ Schedules of Controlled Substances: Rescheduling of Food and Drug Administration Approved Products, supra note 6.
¹⁸ U.S. Dep’t of the Treasury, Treasury, IRS Announce Process for Tax Guidance Following DOJ Final Order on Medical Marijuana Rescheduling (Apr. 23, 2026).
¹⁹ 26 U.S.C. § 280E (2024).
²⁰ U.S. Dep’t of the Treasury, supra note 18.
²¹ Cannabis Rescheduling: DOJ, Treasury, and DEA Updates Since the April 23 Order, Foley Hoag LLP (Apr. 2026).
²² DEA Reschedules FDA-Approved Marijuana Products and State-Licensed Medical Marijuana to Schedule III, Saul Ewing LLP (Apr. 23, 2026).
²³ FY27 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies—Subcommittee Mark, supra note 4, § 591.
²⁴ Press Release, U.S. Dep’t of Just., supra note 5; U.S. Dep’t of the Treasury, supra note 18.
²⁵ 21 U.S.C. § 811 (2024).
²⁶ FY27 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies—Subcommittee Mark, supra note 4, § 591.
²⁷ Tony Lange, GOP Lawmakers Once Again Trying to Strip White House Rescheduling Powers, Cannabis Business Times (May 1, 2026).
²⁸ GOP-Led Congressional Committee Votes To Block Marijuana Rescheduling, Defying Trump, Marijuana Moment (May 2026).
²⁹ Congressional Leaders Drop Attempt To Block Marijuana Rescheduling While Preserving State Medical Cannabis Protections, Marijuana Moment (Jan. 2026).
³⁰ Id.; Lange, supra note 27.
³¹ Press Release, U.S. Dep’t of Just., supra note 5.
³² Schedules of Controlled Substances: Rescheduling of Marijuana, supra note 7.
³³ U.S. Dep’t of the Treasury, supra note 18; Foley Hoag LLP, supra note 21.
³⁴ 26 U.S.C. § 280E (2024); Saul Ewing LLP, supra note 22.
³⁵ Canon, supra note 9.
³⁶ Id.
³⁷ Foley Hoag LLP, supra note 21.
³⁸ Id.; U.S. Dep’t of the Treasury, supra note 18.
³⁹ House Comm. on Appropriations, supra notes 1–3.
⁴⁰ Press Release, U.S. Dep’t of Just., supra note 5; U.S. Dep’t of the Treasury, supra note 18; Schedules of Controlled Substances: Rescheduling of Marijuana, supra note 7.
⁴¹ FY27 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies—Subcommittee Mark, supra note 4, § 591; House Comm. on Appropriations, supra note 1.
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