A powerful congressional panel is set to weigh four marijuana measures next week.
One proposal would allow military veterans to receive medical cannabis recommendations from their doctors at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Another would protect veterans from losing access to their VA benefits as a punishment for medical marijuana use. A third would shield VA employees who are veterans and who use marijuana in accordance with state law from being fired. And another concerns water rights for marijuana and hemp growers.
Lawmakers filed the cannabis proposals as amendments to a large-scale funding bill expected to be considered in the House next week.
But first, the Rules Committee will decide whether the measures will even be allowed to reach the floor for up-or-down votes.
That panel’s chairman, Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), has made a practice of blocking any and all cannabis amendments over the course of the past several years, so getting the measures to the floor where they can be considered by the full House may be a heavy lift for supporters.