Interpreting the President's FY 14 Budget for FDA

Most of the President’s proposed $821 million increase in FY 14 funding at FDA is growth in existing user fees (+$500 million over FY 12) and proposed new user fees, particularly in the food and cosmetics area (+$270 million).

Budget authority (BA) appropriations (taxpayer funding) would increase $52 million over FY 12 if the President’s request is adopted. The bulk of the new monies over the 2 years would be going to food safety programs in CFSAN and CVM (+$43 million), a new China import initiative run out of the Commissioner’s Office ($10 million), additional support for development of medical countermeasures (bio-defense) (+$3.5 million), and outfitting the new biosciences laboratory buildings at White Oak (+$17 million). Also, there is about $10 million in additional rent payments.

Altogether, these total more than $83 million in increases. To reconcile the numbers (to reach the net increase of $52 million), the Administration is proposing more than $30 million in base program adjustments (cuts). The base adjustment affects all parts of the agency -- it reduces the increase requested for food safety by about $14 million and creates an actual decrease at the medical product centers of about $16 million. It is not clear whether these are administrative savings or actual program cuts.Here is the Alliance’s summary of the President’s FY 14 request for budget authority programs. Note that the pre-rescission and pre-sequester FY 13 numbers (second column) are what Congress passed in March. This includes $50 million in “no year” supplemental monies that FDA can stretch out into FY 14, but is most likely to spend in FY 13. However, the post-rescission and post-sequester FY 13 numbers (third column) reflect that reality of the monies that FDA will have actually received in FY 13.

BA Funding FY 12 FY 13 Pre-Rescissionand Pre-Sequester FY 13 Post-Rescissionand Post-Sequester FY 14 President’sProposed           Salaries and Expenses $ 2.497 billion $ 2.524 billion $ 2.335 billion $ 2.549 billion No Year Money   $ 50 million $ 49 million   Buildings and Facilities $ 9 million $ 5 million $ 5 million $ 9 million TOTAL $ 2.506 billion $ 2.579 billion+ $73 millionvs. FY 12 $ 2.389 million– $117 millionvs. FY 12 $ 2.558 billion+ $ 52 millionvs. FY 12– $ 19 millionvs. FY 13 pre-cuts+ $169 millionvs. FY 13 actual

One question we have been asked repeatedly is why the President chose FY 12 as the base year and why the charts in his request use the obsolete FY 13 CR that was in effect from October 1, 2012 to March 27, 2013. The best way to think about this is to remember that the President’s request was intended to be submitted to Congress in the first week of February. The April 10 request from the President is essentially what would have been submitted at that earlier time, i.e. not adjusted for additional funding, rescission, or sequester that occurred in March when Congress acted on FY 13 appropriations for FDA.

Note: This analysis and commentary is written by Steven Grossman, the Deputy Executive Director of the Alliance for a Stronger FDA.