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