A Q&A About Expectations for FY 15

Q: Will the appropriations committees have additional funds to spend in FY 15?

A: No. Total discretionary spending -- more than $1 trillion in FY 14 -- is slated to grow by only $2 billion in FY 15. Further, certain programs, including some agricultural programs, will automatically cost more -- because they have a mandatory component, are funded by formula, or for technical reasons. Thus, the appropriations committees will actually control less money in the aggregate than they did in FY 14.

Q: Are the appropriations committees going to follow the President’s FDA budget request?

A: We hope not. Most of the Administration’s request is based on new user fees, which the authorizing committees have shown no inclination to adopt. Beyond that, the Administration has proposed a $23 million increase in appropriated funding for food safety activities, although they are estimating about $15 million less from existing (current law) user fees than in FY 14, netting food safety only about $8 million. The Administration has said that implementation of FSMA requires more than $200 million. Medical products programs (excluding tobacco) would receive no net increase in appropriations across an incredibly vast set of responsibilities that are growing as a result of program mandates and globalization. Even the Administration’s proposal for $25 million to implement regulation of pharmacy compounding is coming from other program activities, not new monies.

Q: When the Senate and House committee marks become available, what are the FY 12, FY 13, and FY 14 baselines, with which to compare?

A: Here is a comparison chart. Note that in FY 14, the FDA regained all of the lost ground from sequester and posted about a 2% increase over FY 12. This is significantly better than most government programs did during this period.

Function

Budget authority only, by center; no user fees

FY 12

FY 13 Actual 1

Post-rescission, post-sequester

FY 14 Final

Food

$ 867 million

$797 million

$883 million

Human Drugs

$478 million

$438 million

$466 million

Biologics

$212 million

$195 million

$211 million

Animal Drugs/Feed

$138 million

$126 million

$142 million

Devices & Radiological Health

$323 million

$296 million

$321 million

Natl. Ctr. for Toxicological Research

$60 million

$55 million

$62 million

HQ, Office of Commissioner & Other

$154 million

$160 million

$172 million

Rent & Facilities Cost

$266 million

$269 million

$295 million

SUBTOTAL, Salaries & Expenses

$2.497 billion

$2.335 billion

$2.552 billion

Building and Facilities Repair

$9 million

$5 million

$9 million

Food and Drug Safety Supplemental -- No-Year

---

$46 million

---

All BA appropriations

Total (no user fees)

$2.506 billion

$2.386 billion

$2.561 billion

1 Reflects Congressionally approved reprogramming from CFSAN and DVM to fund the Office of Foods and Veterinary Medicine in the Office of the Commissioner.

Note: This week’s Analysis and Commentary was written by Steven Grossman, the deputy executive director of the Alliance for a Stronger FDA

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