Advocacy at a Glance

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.

• House Ag/FDA Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Chosen. Despite some speculation that Representative Robert Aderholt might choose to lead another subcommittee, it was announced that he will be returning again this Congress to chair the Ag/FDA subcommittee that is our main focus. We congratulate him and look forward to working with him for at least the next 2 years.

• Fate of FY 15 Appropriations Still Unresolved. Congressional leaders remain committed to an omnibus appropriation bill that would fund the federal government for the rest of the year, starting when the Continuing Resolution expires on December 11.
  • As described in last week's Analysis and Commentary, there are still obstacles to a bipartisan bill. One is how Congress is to handle the two very large supplemental appropriations requests from the President for Ebola and the war against ISIS. Even if Congress grants only half of the $12 billion requested, there are politically difficult questions about whether the money is added above the budget ceilings, offset against other spending, or brought off-budget.
  • Also, there is widespread Republican objection to the President taking executive action on immigration, but at week’s end Republican leaders were trying to find vehicles to stop his actions without creating a fight on an omnibus appropriations bill. There are also some Republicans who think Congress should pass another short-term CR and leave the rest of the job to the new Congress with its Senate Republican majority.

• Congress Passes Two Bipartisan Health Bills. The House passed two health bills that had previously been adopted by the Senate. They are now on the way to the President for signature. One is FDA-focused -- the Sunscreen Innovation Act (establishing a more efficient review of new sunscreen ingredients while maintaining safety standards). The other is the Traumatic Brain Injury Reauthorization Act (reauthorizing CDC programs to track and reduce the incidence of traumatic brain injury and encouraging more NIH research.

• No "Friday Update" Thanksgiving Week. There will be no Advocacy at a Glance or Analysis and Commentary published next week, but they will be back again on December 5. Today’s Analysis and Commentary is devoted to our view on Thanksgiving and the FDA.