Appropriations, Debt Ceiling Uncertain
Top-line:
FY 24 Appropriations, Debt Ceiling Face Uncertainty.
Washington Post Calls for CFSAN to Become Freestanding, Outside FDA; Califf Interview Provides Insights.
Alliance Announces New Officers and Executive Committee for 2023.
Seven Percent Increase in BA Funding for FDA in FY 23.
New on the FDA Website.
2023 Alliance Invoices: Did You Receive Yours?
This week’s Analysis and Commentary explores the Washington Post’s editorial which calls for breaking up FDA. We describe the Alliance’s vision of what is needed to stabilize a dysfunctional situation and improve the food and nutrition components of FDA. A massive reorganization might come with unacceptably high costs.
FY 24 Appropriations, Debt Ceiling Face Uncertainty. Funding issues have dominated the news on both sides of the Hill during the first 10 days of the new Congress.
New, potentially divisive, rules for advancing appropriations bills became central to Speaker McCarthy’s drive to secure enough votes for the Speakership. Seemingly in response, the new Chair (Senator Murray) and Vice Chair (Senator Collins) of the Senate Appropriations Committee issued a statement that “we take our responsibility to govern seriously and look forward to working in a bipartisan way here in the Senate to find common ground and move our country forward.”
We may not have seen the movie, but this seems like “everything everywhere all at once.” We have ideas on how the process might work and the impact on domestic programs and FDA, but it seems better to sit back for another week or two and let things evolve. At that point, we will take a deeper analytic dive in a future Analysis and Commentary column.
Washington Post Calls for CFSAN to Become Freestanding, Outside FDA; Califf Interview Provides Insights. This week, in an editorial entitled: “For the nation’s health, break up the Food and Drug Administration” the Washington Post called for separating food programs from the rest of the FDA, This week’s Analysis and Commentary (below) explores the Post's perspective and describes the Alliance’s vision of what is needed to stabilize a dysfunctional food situation and improve the food and nutrition components of FDA.
Concurrent with the editorial, the Post published an interview with Drs. Califf and Woodcock. There are useful insights in their responses, but it is also clear that the FDA leaders are still assessing how to respond to the Reagan-Udall Foundation report that Commissioner Califf requested.
The Alliance is part of this process. We testified before the RUF panel on September 30, and subsequently published three Analysis and Commentary columns exploring why increased funding and reform are both needed in 2023: The F in FDA, Part 2, and Part 3. The Alliance Board is scheduled to meet later this month with the Commissioner and his staff on food safety reform and resources.
Alliance Announces New Officers and Executive Committee for 2023. Please welcome and support the Alliance’s new leadership:
Emily Holubowich (American Heart Association), President
Tom Kraus (American Society for Health-Systems Pharmacists), Vice President
Esther Krofah (Faster Cures), Secretary/Treasurer
Mary Dwight (Cystic Fibrosis Foundation), Immediate Past President
Alison Bodor (American Frozen Food Institute), at-large member
Julie Anne Zawisza (Merck), at-large member
Wayne Pines (APCO), at-large member
Seven Percent Increase in BA Funding for FDA in FY 23. In the December 23, 2022, Friday Update, we analyzed the just-passed Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (Public Law 117-328), under which FDA received a $226 million increase in BA funding. At the time, we said this was a 6.5% increase. We re-did our math, and it is more accurate to characterize the increase as 7%. Our complete coverage is here and here.
New on the FDA Website.
Every January, CDER publishes a review of new drugs approved in the prior year. CDER Director Patrizia Cavazzoni’s review of 2022 approvals can be found here.
On January 25 at noon, FDA in partnership with Alliance member Stop Foodborne Illness will be holding the latest in its ongoing webinar series on food safety culture, entitled Food Safety Culture Learning: It's more than checking the boxes.
2023 Alliance Invoices: Did You Receive Yours? Let Steven know if you have not received your 2023 invoice or have misplaced it.
Details for paying dues (electronic payment or sending a check) are on the invoice. If you have any difficulty, let us know. In particular, please do not send anything to the PO Box on the Alliance website because we are experiencing difficulties with mail sent there