I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2623
To amend title 38, United States Code, to require the Secretary of Veterans
Affairs to designate medical facilities of the Department of Veterans
Affairs as innovative therapies centers of excellence, and for other pur-
poses.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL3, 2025
Mr. C
ORREA(for himself, Mr. BERGMAN, Mr. CRENSHAW, Mr. KHANNA, and
Mr. L
UTTRELL) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
A BILL
To amend title 38, United States Code, to require the Sec-
retary of Veterans Affairs to designate medical facilities
of the Department of Veterans Affairs as innovative
therapies centers of excellence, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Innovative Therapies 4
Centers of Excellence Act of 2025’’. 5
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SEC. 2. DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS DESIGNA-1
TION OF INNOVATIVE THERAPIES CENTERS 2
OF EXCELLENCE. 3
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Chapter 73 of title 38, United 4
States Code, is amended by inserting after section 7330D 5
the following new section: 6
‘‘§ 7330E. Innovative therapies centers of excellence 7
‘‘(a) E
STABLISHMENT OF CENTERS.—(1) The Sec-8
retary, upon the recommendation of the Under Secretary 9
for Health, shall designate not less than five Department 10
medical facilities as the locations for innovative therapies 11
centers of excellence. 12
‘‘(2) Subject to the availability of appropriations for 13
such purpose, the Secretary shall establish and operate in-14
novative therapies centers of excellence at the locations 15
designated pursuant to paragraph (1). 16
‘‘(b) G
EOGRAPHICDISTRIBUTION OFFACILITIES.— 17
In designating Department medical facilities as centers of 18
excellence under subsection (a), the Secretary, upon the 19
recommendation of the Under Secretary for Health, shall 20
assure appropriate geographic distribution of such facili-21
ties. 22
‘‘(c) R
EQUIREMENTS FOR DESIGNATION.—(1) The 23
Secretary may not designate a Department medical facil-24
ity as a location for a center under subsection (a) unless 25
the peer review panel established under subsection (d) has 26
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determined under that subsection that the proposal sub-1
mitted by such facility as a location for a new center under 2
subsection (a) is among those proposals that meet the 3
highest competitive standards of scientific and clinical 4
merit. 5
‘‘(2) The Secretary may not designate a Department 6
medical facility as a location for a center under subsection 7
(a) unless the Secretary, upon the recommendation of the 8
Under Secretary for Health, determines that the facility 9
has, or may reasonably be anticipated to develop, each of 10
the following: 11
‘‘(A) An arrangement with an— 12
‘‘(i) accredited medical school that provides 13
education and training in innovative therapies 14
and with which the Department medical facility 15
is affiliated under which residents receive edu-16
cation and training in use of innovative thera-17
pies to treat covered conditions; 18
‘‘(ii) an accredited school of psychiatry; 19
and 20
‘‘(iii) an accredited school of social work. 21
‘‘(B) The ability to attract the participation of 22
scientists who are capable of ingenuity and creativity 23
in medical research efforts. 24
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‘‘(C) An advisory committee composed of vet-1
erans and appropriate medical and research rep-2
resentatives of the Department medical facility and 3
of the affiliated school or schools to advise the direc-4
tors of such facility and such center on policy mat-5
ters pertaining to the activities of the center during 6
the period of the operation of such center. 7
‘‘(D) The capability to conduct effectively eval-8
uations of the activities of such center. 9
‘‘(E) The capability to coordinate (as part of an 10
integrated national system) education, clinical, and 11
research activities within all facilities with such cen-12
ters. 13
‘‘(F) The capability to jointly develop a consor-14
tium of providers with interest in treating covered 15
conditions with innovative therapies at Department 16
facilities without such centers in order to ensure bet-17
ter access to state-of-the-art diagnosis, care, and 18
education for innovative therapies throughout the 19
medical system of the Department. 20
‘‘(G) The capability to develop a national repos-21
itory in the medical system of the Department for 22
the collection of data on health services delivered to 23
veterans seeking innovative therapies. 24
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‘‘(d) PEERREVIEWPANEL.—(1) The Under Sec-1
retary for Health shall establish a panel to assess the sci-2
entific and clinical merit of proposals that are submitted 3
to the Secretary for the establishment of centers under 4
this section. 5
‘‘(2)(A) The membership of the panel shall consist 6
of experts in innovative therapies. 7
‘‘(B) Members of the panel shall serve for a period 8
of no longer than two years, except as specified in sub-9
paragraph (C). 10
‘‘(C) Of the members first appointed to the panel, 11
one half shall be appointed for a period of three years and 12
one half shall be appointed for a period of two years, as 13
designated by the Under Secretary at the time of appoint-14
ment. 15
‘‘(3) The panel shall review each proposal submitted 16
to the panel by the Under Secretary and shall submit its 17
views on the relative scientific and clinical merit of each 18
such proposal to the Under Secretary. 19
‘‘(4) The panel shall not be subject to chapter 10 of 20
title 5. 21
‘‘(e) A
NNUALREPORT.—Not later than two years 22
after the date of the enactment of this section, and annu-23
ally thereafter, the Under Secretary of Health shall submit 24
to the Committees on Veterans’ Affairs of the Senate and 25
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House of Representatives a report on the activities of the 1
centers of excellence designated under this section during 2
the period covered by the report. Each such report shall 3
include— 4
‘‘(1) a summary of activities carried out by the 5
centers during such period; 6
‘‘(2) an identification of key findings made at 7
such centers during such period; 8
‘‘(3) recommendations to improve the delivery 9
of innovative therapies to veterans; and 10
‘‘(4) such other matters as the Under Secretary 11
determines relevant. 12
‘‘(f) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There 13
are authorized to be appropriated $30,000,000 for each 14
fiscal year for the support of the research and education 15
activities of the centers established pursuant to subsection 16
(a). The Under Secretary for Health shall allocate to such 17
centers from other funds appropriated generally for the 18
Department medical services account and medical and 19
prosthetics research account, as appropriate, such 20
amounts as the Under Secretary for Health determines 21
appropriate. 22
‘‘(g) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section; 23
‘‘(1) The term ‘covered condition’ means any of 24
the following: 25
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‘‘(A) Anxiety. 1
‘‘(B) Bipolar disorder. 2
‘‘(C) Chronic pain. 3
‘‘(D) Depression. 4
‘‘(E) Parkinson’s disease. 5
‘‘(F) Post-traumatic stress disorder. 6
‘‘(G) Substance use disorder. 7
‘‘(H) Such other conditions as may be des-8
ignated by the Under Secretary. 9
‘‘(2) The term ‘innovative therapy’ means any 10
of the following: 11
‘‘(A) 3,4-Methylenedioxy-methamphet-12
amine. 13
‘‘(B) 5-Methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine. 14
‘‘(C) Ibogaine. 15
‘‘(D) Ketamine. 16
‘‘(E) Psilocybin. 17
‘‘(F) Such other therapies as may be des-18
ignated by the Under Secretary.’’. 19
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections 20
at the beginning of such chapter is amended by inserting 21
after the item relating to section 7330D the following new 22
item: 23
‘‘7330E. Innovative therapies centers of excellence.’’.
Æ
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