House Appropriators Schedule FY 23 Mark-ups
Top-Line:
House Appropriators Schedule FY 23 Mark-ups
User Fee Reauthorization Passes House; Will Move Next Week in the Senate
Next Alliance Hill Visits—June 22 and 23; Seeking Sign-Ups
Alliance Unveils New Website: www.strengthenfda.org
FDA Hiring and Space Requirements Re-Evaluated
This week’s Analysis and Commentary discusses how mark-ups can occur without a budget agreement, the House’s passage of a deeming resolution, and the possibility that current appropriations movement will become part of the familiar pattern of “hurry up and wait.”
The House Appropriators Schedule FY 23 Mark-ups. The House Appropriations Committee has released a schedule for mark-ups of all 12 FY 23 funding bills. The first mark-up will be June 15, with planned completion by June 30. This would be consistent with full House consideration of all 12 bills in July.
The Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies is slated for mark-up at 2:30 on June 15. Full committee consideration of the Ag/FDA bill will be at 10 a.m. on June 23.
This week, the House also adopted a “deeming resolution” which allows appropriations subcommittees to start marking-up spending bills without agreement on total spending. Both the deeming resolution and the overall situation are discussed in this week’s Friday Update.
User Fee Reauthorization Passes House; Will Move Next Week in the Senate. With a bipartisan vote of 392 to 28, the House passed H.R. 7667 - the Food and Drug Amendments of 2022 (FDA22), user fee reauthorization legislation this week. The Senate HELP Committee will mark-up its own version of the bill on June 14 at 10 a.m.
Noting this movement, the Alliance issued the following statement. “The Alliance is concerned that user fees be reauthorized by August 1 to avoid lay-off notices and other complications. House passage of the user fee legislation is a major milestone, as will be the Senate committee mark-up scheduled for next week. These are positive signs that Congress understands the urgency. Despite the size and number of differences between the House and Senate version, that spirit of urgency will help conferees to reach agreements in a timely fashion.”
Next Alliance Hill Visits - June 22 and 23; Seeking Sign-Ups. The Alliance conducted more than 50 Hill visits during March and April. Our next round—concentrated on the Senate—will be on June 22 and 23. If you would like to participate, please contact Elisa Bayoumi.
Alliance Unveils New Website: www.strengthenfda.org. In addition to our advocacy on behalf of FDA’s funding needs, the Alliance is a leader in educating policymakers, media, and the public about FDA’s mission and responsibilities. We have revamped and relaunched the Alliance’s new website (www.strengthenfda.org) to serve both purposes.
Among other things, the site contains: current and back issues of Friday Update; information and budget materials for the FY 23 funding cycle; access to material from the Alliance’s 17 webinars since April 2021, including transcripts for most of them; and information about the Alliance’s goals, leadership, and membership. We are also building a set of links to information on the FDA website that respond to questions that the Alliance is often asked.
The new site is content-rich and our goal, over time, is to make it even more useful. Please let us know if you have ideas about content related to FDA’s funding, mission, and responsibilities that you think would be valuable to Alliance members, policymakers, media, FDA stakeholders, and the public.
FDA Hiring and Space Requirements Being Re-Evaluated. In the Alliance’s FY 23 budget priorities webinar series with FDA leadership (transcripts here), several Center directors mentioned more FDA employees working from home and improved ability to recruit product reviewers nationwide because they did not have to relocate to DC. The other side of that, it has been reported that a study is underway to see whether increases in remote office work could result in reduced office space at White Oak.
