FY 2024 Agriculture/FDA Funding–Remaining Issues
This week’s Analysis and Commentary is entitled “Urging Members of Congress to Request Strong FDA Funding for FY 2025.”
FY 2024 Agriculture/FDA Funding–Remaining Issues. Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-GA) said that committee staff continues to negotiate the FY 2024 Agriculture/FDA bill, which is currently funded by Continuing Resolution through March 1. However, there are issues, which he did not identify, that will need to be sent to leadership for resolution. Two likely matters are: proposed House restrictions on mifepristone; and the final funding level for the WIC program.
FY 2024 Ag/FDA Funding–Timing. At close of business this week, the House will be in recess until February 28. The Senate will meet in “pro forma” until February 26. Negotiations will continue, but for the four funding bills covered by the March 1 deadline (which includes Ag/FDA), the compressed schedule leaves little time for: 1/ the issues that only Members can resolve, and 2/ floor discussion and any amendments.
FY 2025 Funding Cycle Starts Soon. Our best guess is that the President’s FY 25 Budget Request will be released the week of March 11. Whether or not the FY 24 process is completed, there will be billions of dollars and hundreds of pages on FDA alone in the FY 25 request. The Alliance will be familiarizing stakeholders through our analyses and via webinars where each Center director and the head of ORA will have an opportunity to describe and explain their portion of the President’s request.
To preview all of this, we urge you to register for our February 28 webinar on how FDA is funded, how its budget is put together, and what we can expect from the FY25 process. Register here.
Transcript and Summary of Last Week’s Webinar with Deputy Commissioner Kimberlee Trzeciak have now been posted. Nearly 200 members of the FDA stakeholder community attended our webinar last week with FDA Deputy Commissioner for Policy, Legislation, and International Affairs, Kimberlee Trzeciak. The recording can be found here, the transcript can be found here, and the summary can be found here.
There was more media coverage of this event this week: here, here, and here.
Three Upcoming Webinars Announced Covering FDA’s budget, food chemical safety, and the new CBER Office of Therapeutic Products.
February 28, 2 p.m. ET on FDA Funding and the Appropriations Process. Register here. Congress intends to finish the FY 24 appropriations process on March 1(for Ag/FDA and others) and March 8 (the rest of the government). Soon thereafter (best guess: March 11), the President will release the FY 2025 budget request.
To get everyone prepared, this Alliance webinar will feature three speakers and allow time for plenty of Q&A moderated by Alliance board member Emily Holubowich:
“How FDA is Funded” Alliance Executive Director, Steven Grossman (former Senate and HHS)
“How FDA Prepares Its Budget” Alliance President Tom Krause (former FDA chief of staff); and
“Understanding the FY 24 Endgame and the FY 25 Process” Alliance Senior Advisor Phil Karsting (former Senate chief of staff and former Administration official).
March 8, noon ET with Jim Jones, Deputy Commissioner for Human Foods. Register here. Deputy Commissioner Jones was our guest in November of 2023, reviewing his early days in the new post and discussing the challenges and his priorities (transcript here).
This generated enormous interest in his plans to advance food chemical safety. In response, Jim agreed to another webinar focused exclusively on that topic.
Alliance board member Alison Bodor (American Frozen Food Institute) will be introducing the program and board members Tom Gremillion (Consumer Federation of America) and Caitlin Boon (Mars) will be the co-moderators.
March 8, 3 p.m. ET with Nicole Verdun, Head of the new CBER Office of Therapeutic Products. Register here. Last year, CBER created the Office of Therapeutic Products, combining multiple offices to pool resources and expertise. It is one of three so-called “super offices” within FDA.
The new Office Director, Nicole Verdun, will be our guest at a March 8 webinar to discuss how the office came about and the opportunities and challenges she faces as its first director.
Alliance board members Mary Dwight (Cystic Fibrosis Foundation) and Cartier Esham (Bio) will be co-moderators.
Alliance Webinar Challenge. By our calculation, the two March 8 webinars have completely different stakeholder audiences. Alliance Executive Director, Steven Grossman, has offered to buy lunch for any Alliance member who has legitimate business interests in both and plans to attend (note: must be an Alliance member).
Dr. Califf’s National Press Club Forum Speech. Commissioner Califf spoke at the National Press Club Headliner’s Forum this Week. You can listen to Dr. Califf’s remarks here or a media report on the speech here. You may also want to read the transcript of Dr. Califf’s comments to the Alliance on January 31 here.