Appropriations Subcommittee Allocations Coming Soon and more

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.

• Appropriations Subcommittee Allocations Coming Soon. One of the impediments to progress on appropriations bills is that neither the House nor the Senate subcommittees have been formally told how much they will have to spend (the so-called 302(b) allocations). Senator Mikulski, ranking Democrat on Senate Appropriations has suggested this will be remedied in the Senate on April 14. Similarly, there is an expectation that the House will do the same either next week or the week after.

• Appropriations Bills to Consume Most of the Senate’s Time for the Remainder of this Year. Senate Majority Leader McConnell (R, Ky) has said that he expects the first appropriations bill to hit the Senate floor by mid-April. He added that the remainder of the 12 appropriations bills will take up much of the Senate’s available floor time this year. The unstated implication is that appropriations bills will come to the floor with limited or no restriction on amendments/policy riders, a process that could make each bill very time consuming.

• Status of Senate Innovations Initiative. The Senate continues to move its innovation initiative forward. Today’s Analysis and Commentary discusses concern with the lack of a funding plan for the additional work proposed for the FDA.