FY 14 Omnibus Appropriations Bill Should Become Law Today and more

Jan 17

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Advocacy at a Glance offers you the bullet point summary of current advocacy issues associated with the goals of the Alliance for a Stronger FDA.

FY 14 Omnibus Appropriations Bill Should Become Law Today. A short-term continuing resolution is keeping the government funded for January 16, 17, and 18. The FY 14 omnibus appropriations bill will take it from this week until September 30, 2014. The bill was adopted by the House on Wednesday by a vote of 359 to 67. It then moved to the Senate, which passed it on Thursday by a vote of 72 to 26. The President will probably have signed it by the time you red this.

State of the Union/Release of the President’s Budget Request. The President’s State of the Union (SOTU) address will be Tuesday, January 28 at 9 p.m. We expect the focus will be on jobs and the economy, but always hope for a favorable FDA mention. Usually, the details of the President’s budget request are released the week after the SOTU. However, we are told that the FY 15 budget release will be at least 30 days late. We have not been told this officially or given an explanation. However, we assume this is so that funding from the FY 14 omnibus appropriation bill can be set up as the base year and request levels and policy can be adjusted in a consistent manner. Last year, the President’s request contained numbers from a short-term continuing resolution and the document was very confusing. In this instance, waiting makes good sense.

Hold this Date: Tuesday, February 4th: 1:00-3:00 pm. The Alliance’s first quarterly meeting of 2014 is scheduled for Tuesday, February 4 from 1 to 3 p.m. More details will be forthcoming. Note that the start time for this meeting and all quarterly meetings in 2014 has been changed to 1 p.m.

Application of FY 14 Monies vs. FY 13