Overall Appropriations Prospects: Murky with a Chance of Progress
This week’s Analysis and Commentary is entitled “Developing the Alliance’s FY 2025 Recommendations.”
Overall Appropriations Prospects: Murky with a Chance of Progress. In our last Friday Update (February 2), we reported that subcommittee allocations had been agreed upon—and that this was a very positive step toward finalizing FY 24 funding bills for FDA and other agencies. However, a lot of good faith bipartisan negotiating is still needed before the March 1 deadline.
Actions this week in both the House and Senate suggest further erosion in Congress’ ability to conduct such negotiations. While there are still more than 3 weeks to go before the deadline, that is reason for concern. Here is our description of possible outcomes from the perspective of one week before the last deadline (FY 24: No Certainty About What Comes Next).
FY 2024 Agriculture/FDA Work Continues. With the announcement that final 302(b) subcommittee allocations have been circulated privately to committee staff, House and Senate Appropriations staff have been provided with the parameters needed to negotiate a final FY 2024 Agriculture/FDA Appropriations bill. There is still work to be done to resolve differences in program priorities and policy riders.
A number of difficulties remain. The first of which (prior story) is that the environment for good-faith bipartisan negotiations appears to have eroded.
A second is that the Senate is in recess during the weeks of February 12 and 19, while the House will be in recess from February 19 through February 27. This won’t prevent staff from working on final legislation. However, for the four funding bills covered by the March 1 deadline, it leaves little time for: 1/ the issues that only Members can resolve, and 2/ floor discussion and any amendments.
A third difficulty is the lack of agreement on the form in which the funding bills will be considered. In prior years, it would have been assumed that the four bills with March 1 deadlines would be bundled in a single package, known as a minibus
However, many House Republicans have been vociferous in their objection to any bundling of funding bills, insisting that they should be considered one at a time. There is neither political will nor floor time to proceed that way, but the disagreement is likely to add additional friction to the process of completing funding bills.
Suggestions that FY 2025 Budget Request May Be Released March 11; Will It Be FY 24 Redux? The President’s State of the Union speech is scheduled for March 7. The release of the President’s FY 25 budget request is likely to occur shortly thereafter.
While no official announcement has been made, there have been suggestions that the President’s FY 2025 request may be sent to Congress on Monday, March 11. If not, the most likely fallback would be on March 18, a week later.
The new budget cycle and the President’s request are likely to renew debate on a number of FY 24 issues that have still not been resolved. For example:
Will Congress - and in particular the House - honor the topline numbers for FY 2025 agreed to in the Fiscal Responsibility Act. What happens if they don’t?
Time for consideration of these bills will be compressed because of the election. Will the House again attempt to force consideration of individual appropriation bills?
Later in the year, there is likely to be additional gamesmanship as each party evaluates its prospects for a “better deal” after the elections.
Did You Catch Our Webinars with Commissioner Califf and Deputy Commissioner Kimberlee Trzeciak? Nearly 300 members of the FDA stakeholder community attended our webinar last week with Commissioner Califf. The transcript is here and the summary is here. We reported on media coverage last week and there was more this week: here, here, and here.
Nearly 200 members of the FDA stakeholder community attended our webinar this week with FDA Deputy Commissioner for Policy, Legislation, and International Affairs, Kimberlee Trzeciak. The recording can be found here. The transcript and summary will be available on our website early next week.
Next Alliance Webinar: March 8, 3 p.m. with Nicole Verdun, Head of the new CBER Office of Therapeutic Products. Register here. Last year, CBER created the Office of Therapeutic Products, combining multiple offices to pool resources and expertise. It is one of three so-called “super offices” within FDA.
The new Office Director, Nicole Verdun, will be our guest at a March 8 webinar to discuss how the office came about and the opportunities and challenges she faces as its first director. We will provide more details later; meantime a registration link is now available.