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.

• Support FDA By Participating In the Alliance’s Hill Day on April 25. The Alliance meets with Congress year-round and we also set aside a special day devoted to Hill outreach. Past Hill Days have been very successful in educating Hill staffers about the FDA and its resource needs. As a side-benefit, participants seem to enjoy the day, both interacting with Hill staff and being teamed up with other FDA stakeholders who they might otherwise never meet.

Hill Day is April 25 this year. We already have 46 meetings scheduled and expect more as we get closer to the date. It is an important opportunity to be heard and it does make a difference for FDA. If you would like to participate, please e-mail Eden Shiferaw to let him know. You might have lots of questions, so this week’s Analysis and Commentary provides answers about Hill Day. Read it and then e-mail Eden to say you will join us.

• Release of Detailed Budget Provides More Insight on FDA Request. Summaries of the President’s budget request for FY 19 came out in mid-February and we praised the President’s proposal to add more than $400 million in additional BA funding for FDA.

The detailed budget was finally released this week. At 346 pages, there is a lot to absorb and a number of barriers to analyzing it quickly. Among other things, the detailed numbers do not fully align with the February summaries (which is not unusual), the base year is the fictitious FY 2018 CR annualized, and there are definitional questions about what constitutes BA funding. So, rather than rush and risk getting it wrong, we are working toward having our complete analysis available for Alliance members by the end of next week.

• Congress Returns; House Testimony Due by April 13. The Senate returns on April 9 and the House on April 10. Both remain in session until April 30. Just before this past recess, the Alliance submitted written testimony to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture and FDA appropriations. We plan to do the same on the House side and urge Alliance members to submit their own testimony. The House deadline is April 13, directions are here. If you would like help crafting testimony to reflect your  perspectives on FDA, please contact Steven Grossman by e-mail.