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 Appropriations Ag/FDA Subcommittee Marks Up Bill on April 13; Full Committee on April 19. Under the House Appropriations Subcommittee passed bill, the FDA would receive $2.754 billion in budget authority appropriations, which is $33 million above FY 16 and $18 million above the President’s request. Cynthia Bens, Alliance President has commented:

The Alliance for a Stronger FDA is encouraged that the House proposal for FDA funding exceeds the Administration’s meager request. Nonetheless, the House mark fails to acknowledge FDA’s rapidly expanding role in food and drug safety and innovative medical product development.

Click here to read full Alliance press release, along with a chart that compares the House subcommittee numbers, the President’s request, and three prior years.

• Full House Appropriations Committee Action. The full committee plans to mark up the bill this coming Tuesday (April 19) at 10:30 a.m. -- Rayburn Room 2359.

• Appropriations Allocations for Subcommittees are Out -- Ag/FDA Has Less than Last Year in Both Chambers. As a factor of the very difficult discretionary budgetary environment Congress is facing, many appropriations subcommittees are going to have less money this year compared to last year. Unfortunately, in both the House and Senate, Ag/FDA Appropriations is in the same boat, with less to work with this year compared to last year.

• Status of Senate Innovations Initiative. The Senate HELP Committee continues to work on its innovation initiative following an April 6 mark-up. If they can resolve issues over funding, then they are hoping for time on the Senate calendar in the next few weeks. Today’s Analysis and Commentary continues last week’s discussion of the lack of a funding plan for the additional work proposed for the FDA.