A congressional committee is set to vote this week on a GOP-led bill that would instruct the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to notify Congress if any psychedelics are added to its formulary of covered prescription drugs.
About a month after the House Veterans’ Affairs Health Subcommittee held an initial hearing on the legislation from Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI), members will mark up the bill on Tuesday.
The panel had also discussed a measure from the subcommittee chair Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA) during last month’s hearing, but that proposal isn’t on the Tuesday markup agenda—even though VA voiced support for it on the condition that certain amendments were made.
VA came out against the psychedelics bill that is getting a vote, arguing that it’s “unnecessary.”
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.
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).
Last month, congressional appropriations leaders also unveiled a spending package that contains language providing $10 million to facilitate the psychedelics studies.
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 last month, 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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