Why Participate In Hill Days

Each Spring the Alliance for a Stronger FDA reaches out to Hill offices to emphasize our support for robust FDA appropriated resources.

Our first two days will be Tuesday, April 25 and Wednesday, April 26 and will be virtual.  As veterans of this process will recall, we would like to have a broad cross section of our membership participate. This underscores the breadth of FDA’s work and its central role in public health and our economy.

Alliance members are asked to check their calendars and let Ben Dash know your availability on those two days. This promises to be a challenging appropriations cycle and your voice is important.

Beginning with these late April meetings, the Alliance for a Stronger FDA will be arranging a series of Hill meetings to make the case for increased FDA funding. 

For a host of reasons, these meetings carry special importance this year. As has been widely reported, some elements of the House majority want to roll non-defense discretionary spending back to FY 22 levels, a move that would be very detrimental to FDA’s work.   Even flat funding would leave FDA without vital program funding. In short, these extraordinary times call for extraordinary effort to get our message out precisely and effectively.

So, what will these meetings look like this year?  This year we expect there will be both virtual and in-person advocacy engagements.  Regardless of the form they take, we prefer each team to illustrate the breadth of the Alliance’s membership (consumer, rare disease, food, veterinary and medical products.)  This helps us illustrate, in very real terms, the breadth of FDA’s responsibilities and its critical role in our nation’s health and economy.

During these engagements, we typically present the big picture (“a growing agency requires a budget that grows”) and each team member then provides their perspective on “why a well-funded FDA” is important to their organization or interests. While not an opportunity to advocate for anything other than FDA funding, these meetings often become an entrée for team members to ask for subsequent meetings where more targeted advocacy may be appropriate. 

Who will be targeted in these meetings? Naturally we will focus first on members of the House and Senate Ag/FDA appropriation subcommittees.  Moreover, we typically put special emphasis on members who also sit on the authorizing committees with jurisdiction over FDA (Senate HELP and House Energy and Commerce.)

As you think through your organization’s participation, please consider where you might have valuable constituent relationship with members of these committees.  The links above can help you sort through those individual relationships. 

If you’re interested in participating, please drop a line to Ben Dash. Mention if your organization has any special relationships with Hill offices.

Editorial Note: The Analysis and Commentary section is written by
Steven Grossman, Executive Director of the Alliance for a Stronger FDA.