Congressional Committee Approves GOP-Led Psychedelics Bill Focused On Military Veterans’ Therapeutic Access

A congressional committee has approved a GOP-led psychedelics bill focused on military veterans’ access.

About two weeks after the House Veterans’ Affairs Health Subcommittee advanced the legislation, members of the full committee on Wednesday advanced it to potential floor action in a voice vote as part of an en bloc package with other measures.

The proposal from Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) would require the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to notify Congress if any psychedelics are added to its formulary of covered prescription drugs.

The bill states that VA must report to Congress on the addition of any psychedelic medicines to its formulary within 180 days of their federal approval by Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The report would need to include “the determination of the Secretary whether to include such drug in the formulary of the Department,” as well as “the justification of the Secretary for such determination,” the bill text says.

At a hearing earlier this year, VA came out against the psychedelics bill, arguing that it’s “unnecessary.”

Currently, there are no psychedelic drugs that are federally approved to prescribe as medicine. But that could soon change, as FDA recently agreed to review a new drug application for MDMA-assisted therapy on an expedited basis. The agency has also designated psilocybin, and more recently an LSD-like compound, as “breakthrough therapies.”

In January, VA separately issued a request for applications to conduct in-depth research on the use of psychedelics to treat PTSD and depression.

Van Orden, who filed the psychedelics bill, is also a co-sponsor of a bipartisan measure to provide funding to the Department of Defense (DOD) to conduct clinical trials into the therapeutic potential of certain psychedelics for active duty military members. That reform was signed into law by President Joe Biden under an amendment attached to the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

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In March, congressional appropriations leaders also unveiled a spending package that contains language providing $10 million to facilitate the psychedelics studies.

The health subcommittee last month also approved a separate medical cannabis measure, sponsored by the subcommittee chair Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA), titled the Veterans Cannabis Analysis, Research, and Effectiveness (CARE) Act. But the full panel has not yet acted on the legislation.

The proposal would require VA to “conduct and support research relating to the efficacy and safety of forms of cannabis” for chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and “other conditions the Secretary determines appropriate.”

The legislation specifies that the VA studies must involve plants and extracts, at least three varieties of cannabis with different concentrations of THC and CBD and “varying methods of cannabis delivery, including topical application, combustable and non-combustable inhalation, and ingestion.”

VA would first have to submit a research plan to House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees and make any requests to support the studies. Over the course of five years after the bill is enacted, VA would need to send annual reports on its progress to the panels.

At last month’s hearing, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) voiced support for the bill on the condition that certain amendments were made.

The measure as drafted is identical to an earlier bill Miller-Meeks sponsored last Congress. On the Senate side, a committee approved a separate bill last February to promote research into the therapeutic effects of marijuana for military veterans with certain conditions. However, Senate Republicans blocked a procedural motion to advance it to the floor.

In a floor speech last year, Miller-Meeks, the subcommittee chair, talked about the need to support “novel forms of research” to unlock the potential of psychedelics and cannabis for the treatment of conditions like PTSD that commonly afflict veterans.

She also touted first-ever FDA guidance on psychedelics research that she separately requested in a bill filed last year alongside Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) and Ro Khanna (D-CA).

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During joint U.S. House and Senate committee meetings in March, VSOs also pressed members of Congress to more urgently pursue the potential benefits of psychedelic-assisted therapy and medical marijuana.

The requests from groups like the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, Disabled American Veterans and the Wounded Warrior Project came on the heels of organizations at last year’s set of annual VSO hearings criticizing VA for “dragging their feet” on medical marijuana research.

In October, VA separately launched a new podcast about the future of veteran health care, and the first episode of the series focuses on the healing potential of psychedelics.

FDA officials also recently joined scientists at a public meeting on next steps for conducting research to develop psychedelic medicines.

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Image courtesy of Kristie Gianopulos.