No Further Action on Agriculture/FDA Appropriations Until September–House & Senate Edition
This week’s Analysis and Commentary is entitled: “September Focus on Continuing Resolution Likely to Mask Broader Budget Discussions”
No Further Action on Agriculture/FDA Appropriations Until September–House Edition. The House left on its August recess on July 25 and will next be in session on September 9. Before leaving the House advanced a couple of additional FY 25 funding bills, but Agriculture/FDA was not one of them.
In September the House will need to take up a Continuing Resolution to fund the government from October 1 until after the election...or possibly into early next year. We have received mixed signals as to whether the House will continue to work on individual funding bills in September or defer consideration until after the election.
No Further Action on Agriculture/FDA Appropriations until September–Senate Edition. The full Senate has not yet considered any appropriation bills, including the Agriculture/FDA measure. Instead, the full Senate Appropriations Committee continued to report additional funding bills: 1/ Energy and Water; 2/ Defense; 3/Labor, HHS, and Education; and 4/ Financial Services and General Government. Reflecting continued bipartisan support, the votes were 28-0, 28-0, 25-3, and 27-0 respectively. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Murray (D-WA) said she expects the committee to take up the Homeland Security bill when the Senate returns to session in September. However, there has not been a schedule for floor consideration of any funding bills.
What the House and Senate Currently Provide for FDA in their Committee-passed FY 2025 Bills. Both the House and Senate Appropriation Committees have passed their own versions of FY 25 Agriculture/FDA funding bills, (HR 9027 and S 4690). The table below offers what the Alliance considers as starting points for each body.
The House bill did not identify any particular budget authority increases for individual activities and the overall funds that would be provided are $22 million less than in FY 24.
The Senate bill would increase FDA funding by $22 million and specifies an increase of $1 million to conduct oversight of cosmetics; an increase of $15 million for food safety; an increase of $3 million for the Neurology Drug Program; $2 million in new funding for the recently announced Tobacco Task Force; and $1 million more for antimicrobial research.
The committee reports offer further detail regarding specific actions the House and Senate Committees would like FDA to follow. That information is extracted in a searchable format for you here: House (FDA section & funding section) and Senate (FDA section and funding section). The full reports can be found in House Report 118-583 and Senate Report 118-193.
Analysis of Spending on FDA’s Food Programs. This week, the Alliance held the second in a series of Alliance member-only meetings with senior FDA officials.
As part of our meeting with Deputy Commissioner Jim Jones and leadership team, they provided the attached set of slides (here) describing food programs and spending at FDA. The deck is useful in its own right and also reflects Jim’s commitment to more detailed and transparent communications about FDA’s Human Food Program.
If you are an Alliance member, you can look forward to additional announcements soon about upcoming member meetings with FDA leaders. If you are not an Alliance member, you should contact Steven about the benefits of membership and our plans for future meetings.
Human Foods Program Announces September 25 Public Meeting on Post-Market Assessment of Chemicals in Foods. At the same meeting with the Alliance, Jim Jones talked about his continued commitment to a robust FDA program on post-market assessment of chemicals in food–which is supported by both industry and consumer groups.
Specifically, the FDA is developing a systematic process for conducting post-market assessments of chemicals in food. This includes ingredients considered generally recognized as safe (GRAS), food additives, color additives, food contact substances, and contaminants. This is intended to guide our post-market assessment work going forward and includes a transparent process for identifying and prioritizing food chemicals currently in the market for safety reviews. This project is part of a larger enhanced approach for food chemical safety.
CDRH Director Jeff Shuren to Retire. Jeff Shuren, the Director of the Center for Devices and Radiological Health, has announced his plans to retire from FDA. We at the Alliance for a Stronger FDA recognize Dr. Shuren as a strong leader who has greatly advanced medical technology since his appointment as Director in 2010.
We appreciate his willingness on multiple occasions to speak to the Alliance and provide us with valuable information that has helped us support strong funding for FDA. While no formal announcement has been released by FDA, Politico reports that Michelle Tarver will serve as the interim leader of CDRH.
Friday Update Returns August 30. With the House and Senate in recess until September 9 and the newly-interesting Democratic convention taking up the middle of the month of August, we do not expect any notable appropriations news in the coming few weeks.
Accordingly, we will not be publishing Friday Update on August 9, 16, or 23. We will return on August 30 with our outlook for House and Senate appropriations action in September. While Update won’t be publishing, Alliance staff will be available throughout August to assist Alliance members.