Highest-ranking combat veteran in Congress pushes for psychedelic medicine research

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Tuesday, May 19, 2026

WASHINGTON — Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Mich., the highest-ranking combat veteran ever to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives, participated in a Tuesday morning event on Capitol Hill examining the therapeutic potential of psychedelic medicines in mental health treatment, especially for veterans struggling with trauma.

Bergman, co-founder and co-chair of the Congressional Psychedelics Advancing Therapies (PATH) Caucus, featured as the first panelist during an event hosted by The Hill and titled "Rethinking Psychedelic Treatment for America's Mental Health Crisis."

Bergman, who has been one of the most prominent advocates in Congress for advancing psychedelic-assisted therapies for treatment-resistant mental illnesses, praised President Donald Trump's April 18 executive order to accelerate psychedelic drugs for FDA approval as potential medical treatments. Such drugs include psilocybin, methylone, ibogaine and similar compounds.

"The meat in the executive order is to encourage more people to take the risk to start things rolling," he said. "I'm product agnostic … I'm interested in outcomes. Do the research."

Noting he and other members of Congress are pushing for more money in the budget of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for psychedelic research, he suggested there is a potentially narrow window of time to take advantage of support from the executive branch.

"So, when you got the top cover of the executive order and the executive order will only last, you know, as long as President Trump is in office and then the next president, we don't know, could they rescind it? So that's why the time is now to get the ball rolling, to see some breakthroughs."

"It's not the time to sit around and 'Well, no, we can just delay a little longer. We won’t have to deal with this,'" he added. "If you're that person, we're coming after you, OK? You need to be doing something else for a living."

Bergman also touched on ibogaine research in Texas, which launched its own research program into the naturally occurring psychoactive alkaloid in March after state officials were unable to find a company to help develop it into a drug for FDA approval.

Derived from the root bark of an African shrub, ibogaine received widespread attention last month after featuring as the topic during an episode of "The Joe Rogan Experience" with former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who promoted it as an effective treatment for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, based on the experience of veterans he knows.

According to a study released last year, researchers at Stanford University found that ibogaine safely and effectively reduced the symptoms of veterans who experienced a traumatic brain injury and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression.

Ibogaine was mentioned specifically in Trump's executive order, which claimed it shows "potential in clinical studies to address serious mental illnesses for patients whose conditions persist after completing standard therapy."

"I believe that, again, we are a country of states' rights, and if a state wants to do something on research because they've made a commitment to it, as long as they're not breaking any federal laws, they should be allowed to do that," Bergman said.

Bergman expressed optimism that there is a bipartisan push to find solutions for the many Americans suffering from treatment-resistant mental illness, and pushed back against the narrative that Democrats and Republicans in Congress are simply "at each other's throats all day" as a misconception promoted by the media.

Stephanie Fagan, who serves as chief corporate affairs officer at the New York-based biopharmaceutical company Definium Therapeutics, opened the event by noting that the U.S. is facing "a profound mental health crisis, one touching nearly every family, workplace and community."

"Rates of anxiety, depression, PTSD, substance use disorder, and suicidality continue to rise while too many patients still rely on treatments developed decades ago," she said.

The hearing comes after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is focusing on mental health, announcing a sweeping new initiative earlier this month to reduce what he characterized as the overprescription of antidepressant selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and other psychotropic medications, especially for children.

During an hours-long summit on mental health and overmedicalization, which featured testimony from young people who claimed to have been damaged by childhood prescription of psychotropic drugs, Kennedy grew emotional, recounting a family member who suffered from lingering SSRI withdrawal, which he said was worse than withdrawing from heroin.