The Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee held a hearing Wednesday on the Veterans Health Administration Novel Therapeutics Preparedness Act (S. 4220), one of 25 bills reviewed. Led by Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-MT) and cosponsored by Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), and John Boozman (R-AR), the bill would create a VA Office of Novel Therapeutics to advance mental health treatments and review the scheduling of psilocybin, ibogaine, and MDMA.
VA officials support the bill's intent but oppose creating a new office. Margarita Devlin, principal deputy under secretary for benefits at the Veterans Benefits Administration, said the existing Integrated Project Team (IPT) already handles most proposed functions and that the bill "would largely duplicate the efforts of the existing IPT." Mark A. Koeniger, acting assistant under secretary for health for patient care services, offered to work with the committee to identify gaps.
Gallego argued for enshrining the office in statute. "Should there be a change in administration, everything could just kind of go away," he said. "This administration has actually been better about working with psychedelics and veterans than the last administration." He also cited veterans seeking unregulated psychedelic therapy abroad as a concern.
Brian Dempsey of the Wounded Warrior Project called veteran suicide rates "unacceptably high" and said psychedelics "may offer new options for a subset of veterans who have exhausted existing treatments." AMVETS national executive director Joe Chenelly backed the bill's goals while urging coordination with community providers and suicide prevention programs.
The bill would establish at least one Center of Excellence per VA regional district, a Veteran Advisory Committee, coordination with HHS, FDA, CMS, DOD, and DEA on scheduling and coverage, annual congressional reports, and an assessment within 180 days. Supporting organizations include Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Disabled American Veterans, and the Psychedelic Medicine Coalition.
A related bill by Gallego and Sen. David McCormick (R-PA) would provide $30 million annually for psychedelic VA centers of excellence; a House version by Congressional Psychedelics Advancing Therapies (PATH) Caucus co-chairs Reps. Lou Correa (D-CA) and Jack Bergman (R-MI) was introduced last year but has not advanced.
The hearing follows a Trump executive order to expedite psychedelics research. VA Secretary Doug Collins and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. both backed reform; Kennedy told Joe Rogan the administration is "very anxious" to create a legal pathway and wants to "get it out to the public as quickly as possible."
