Correa-Bergman Amendment Set For Vote On House Floor This Week
WASHINGTON — Today, Representatives Lou Correa (D-CA) and Jack Bergman (D-MI), Co-Chairs of the Psychedelics Advancing Therapies (PATH) Caucus, introduced an amendment to the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill pushing the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to prepare more robust infrastructure to support eventual integration of approved psychedelic therapies into veterans' care options.
“We lose up to 20 veterans a day to suicide. One is too many. Our nation’s veterans continue to suffer tragic rates of suicide and opioid overdose deaths after they return home. While the VA has finally begun to study the impact of breakthrough therapies like psychedelics on veterans’ invisible wounds, the time is now to begin preparing for how these therapies will one-day be distributed to ensure the health and safety of our nation’s most valiant warriors,” Correa said. “It’s my hope that my colleagues—Democrat and Republican alike—will join us in getting this amendment signed into law and kickstart our work to get our veterans the care they deserve.”
Specifically, the Correa-Bergman Amendment would push the VA to evaluate and make recommendations on changes that would need to be made to the existing healthcare infrastructure to integrate approved psychedelic therapies into veterans' care options for conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use disorders.
“After serving our country with honor, many of our warriors return home only to face a different kind of battle. I’ve spent years advocating for solutions to meet Veterans where they actually are, including exploring innovative therapies that show promise for treating the invisible wounds of war,” Bergman said. “We owe it to our Veterans to create more options for help and less hoops to jump through – they shouldn’t come home to a new fight.”
This comes after, last year, the House of Representatives passed another Correa-Bergman Amendment, which was included in federal funding legislation and was signed into law, to push the VA to carry out “large-scale studies” into drugs like psilocybin and MDMA—which have been designated as “breakthrough therapies” by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)—and the Department has now begun to fund.
In April, Correa and Bergman introduced the Innovative Therapies Centers of Excellence Act of 2025, bipartisan legislation that would increase federally funded research on innovative therapies to treat Veterans experiencing conditions like PTSD, substance use disorder, and depression. This was the first piece of stand-alone psychedelics-related legislation to be introduced by the PATH Caucus.
You can read the full text of the amendment HERE.
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