MATE Improvement Act
Latest action. Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Medication Access and Training Expansion Improvement Act or the MATE Improvement Act
This bill expands the types of organizations that may provide required training for practitioners registering with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to dispense (i.e., prescribe or administer) certain controlled substances.
Current law requires health care practitioners to register with the DEA and complete a one-time training on substance use disorders from specified entities in order to dispense schedule II-V controlled substances. Practitioners who graduated within the last five years from specified types of schools and whose curriculum included similar training on substance use disorders are exempt from having to receive this additional training.
The bill adds several organizations (e.g., the American Academy of Family Physicians) to the list of entities that may provide the required one-time training for physicians or other practitioners. It also expands the types of practitioners who are exempt from this training requirement to include those who graduated from schools of podiatric medicine or schools of pharmacy within the last five years and received similar training as part of their curriculums.
The bill applies retroactively, taking effect as if enacted on December 29, 2022.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in Senate" stage on March 11, 2025. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on March 11, 2025: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the Senate
- Passage by the House
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 118th Congress (2023-24), 274 of the 16,565 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 1.7 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Michael Bennet (D-CO) introduced it on March 11, 2025, and 1 member has since signed on as a cosponsor.
They are 1 Republican.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on March 11, 2025, 548 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 548 days ago, on March 11, 2025.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 119th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2027 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- SenateIn committee, no floor vote yet
- HouseAwaits Senate passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers