The Veterans Equal Access Act in 2026: What’s Pending, What’s Not, and What It Would Actually Do

What VHA Directive 1315 currently does

VA’s current policy on medical marijuana is governed by VHA Directive 1315 (“Access to VHA Clinical Programs for Veterans Participating in State-Approved Marijuana Programs”). The directive does several things: it explicitly prohibits VA providers from completing forms or registering veterans for state-approved cannabis programs, prohibits VA providers from recommending or making referrals to state programs, and instructs VA medical facility leadership to ensure their staff understand and follow these prohibitions.

The result is that VA-enrolled veterans seeking state-legal medical cannabis must navigate the state evaluation process entirely outside the VA system — typically through a non-VA physician, often a DO. They cannot get the recommendation, paperwork, or guidance from the VA clinicians who otherwise manage their care.

What the Veterans Equal Access Act amendment would do

The amendment uses a specific legal mechanism: it prohibits VA from spending appropriated funds to enforce the relevant parts of Directive 1315. This is how Congress changes agency behavior through the appropriations process. The text specifically addresses three pieces of Directive 1315:

First, the policy stating that VHA providers are prohibited from completing forms or registering veterans for participation in a state-approved marijuana program. Second, the directive that medical facility Directors ensure VHA policy on these prohibitions is communicated and enforced. Third, the requirement that VA Medical Facility Directors ensure facility staff are aware of the prohibition on recommending, making referrals to, or completing forms.

What it would NOT do

The amendment is narrowly targeted. It does NOT change federal cannabis law. Cannabis remains a controlled substance — Schedule III for state-licensed medical use as of April 28, 2026, but still federally controlled. VA pharmacies still cannot fill cannabis prescriptions. The VA still cannot pay for medical cannabis. Veterans still cannot use or possess cannabis on VA property. The amendment is solely about whether VA doctors can participate in the state evaluation and recommendation process.

It also does not affect the underlying eligibility requirements of any state’s medical cannabis program. State-by-state qualifying conditions, certification renewal cycles, and product rules continue to apply.

Where the bill stands as of mid-2026

The history that makes this complicated

The Veterans Equal Access Act has been advanced in the House multiple times over the past decade. It has passed as standalone legislation and as appropriations amendments — but has not been enacted into final law. In some cases, the provision was included in the House version of an appropriations bill but stripped during conference negotiations with the Senate. The 2024 cycle followed this pattern: both chambers had similar provisions, but neither survived the final package.

The 2026 budget cycle is happening alongside the broader federal cannabis policy shift — the April 23 DEA rescheduling order, the June 29 DEA hearing, the December 2025 Executive Order on medical marijuana research. Whether this shifts the political math for the Veterans Equal Access Act is genuinely uncertain. The arguments for it (state-level evidence, veterans’ interest, the new federal medical recognition) are stronger than they were in prior cycles. But the same competing dynamics — federal-state conflict, VA institutional concerns, broader cannabis politics — that have stopped it before are still in play.