SANTA ANA, CA — Today, U.S. Representatives Lou Correa (CA-46) and General Jack Bergman (MI-01), co-chairs of the Psychedelics Advancing Therapies Caucus (PATH), led a bipartisan letter of 30 members of Congress sent to FDA Commissioner Martin A. Makary, urging the agency to advance its evaluation of rapid-acting novel therapeutics—including entactogen- and psychedelic-assisted therapies—for the treatment of serious mental health conditions. The letter follows the executive order that President Donald Trump signed on April 18 to increase research into psychedelic-assisted therapy, which has been a top priority of Rep. Correa.
“As Members of the House of Representatives, we have heard from countless Veterans, clinicians, and families seeking evidence-based alternatives, and many of us joined a bipartisan letter to President Biden in 2024 urging his administration to support access to MDMA-assisted therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), pending FDA approval,” the members said. “We are encouraged by your public statements recognizing these treatments as ‘a top priority for this FDA and this administration.’ We agree that the agency must conduct ‘an expeditious and rapid review’ of promising treatments, especially those that address urgent unmet needs in PTSD, traumatic brain injury, and other neuropsychiatric conditions.”
Millions of Americans continue to struggle with complex mental health challenges, and for many, existing treatment options fall short. This gap in care is felt acutely among Veterans, who experience rates of PTSD, depression, and suicide far exceeding those of the general population, and it has contributed to a growing and urgent public health crisis affecting individuals, families, and communities across the country.
“We remain committed to ensuring that Veterans and others living with treatment-resistant mental health conditions have access to safe, evidence-based care,” the members added. “We respectfully urge the FDA to continue its evaluation of entactogen- and psychedelic-assisted therapies with transparency, urgency, and scientific rigor as the agency carries out its statutory responsibilities.”
Rep. Correa co-founded the Congressional Psychedelics Advancing Therapies (PATH) Caucus with Rep. Bergman to address ways to alleviate the national mental health crisis through psychedelic science and research, which currently has 12 members. Representatives Correa and Bergman also led efforts in Congress to promote psychedelic treatments for veterans suffering PTSD, through advocating for more research funding and eventual inclusion of approved psychedelic therapies into veterans' VA care options once it is approved by the FDA.
Read the letter here
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