How Appropriations leaders receive input from other Members about funding priorities.

Members of Congress Tell Appropriators About Their Funding Priorities

The annual appropriations cycle is a multi-step process that starts with the President’s budget request (usually during the second week of February; this year, in March) and hopefully ends later in the same calendar year with the passage of funding bills by Congress and their signature by the President. Many years that process is delayed into the next fiscal year and interim funding comes from a Continuing Resolution. Eventually, appropriations bills are enacted. A lot happens in between—some of it is process, some of it political, much of it substantive--as Congress allocates more than $1.5 trillion to fund federal discretionary programs.

One small, important, and largely invisible step in the appropriations process occurs in March and April each year and falls under the rubric of “Members of Congress tell appropriators about their funding priorities.”

Every Member of Congress is given the opportunity to tell Appropriation Subcommittees about their funding priorities. Sometimes, this process has a tangible impact on what the appropriations subcommittees do, but it is impossible to predict.

Both House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees expect to hear requests from other Representatives and Senators to help them develop their own budget recommendations. It helps FDA’s cause greatly if the subcommittee and Member offices are saying FDA funding is a priority.

We can say for sure that it would be easier to advocate for FDA funding before the appropriations subcommittees if more Members told them that FDA funding was a priority. This is not a pathway that FDA funding advocates can ignore.

Individual Representatives and Senators are now beginning to set their own internal deadlines for receiving requests from constituents and other interested parties. By necessity, these deadlines are earlier than those established by the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees. This permits individual members time to review what is being asked of them, and what they, in turn, want to send to the subcommittees.

Each office has its own internal process, with different forms and information it wants from constituents and interested parties.

The mere act of reaching out to Member staff advances the cause. Even if we do not succeed in making a Member’s priority list, every request form we fill out provides an opportunity to help a Congressional office understand the importance of a well-funded FDA.

We can work with your organization to identify priority Members for outreach. While every office wants different information, there are common core questions, such as what funding did the FDA receive in the last 3 or 5-year period, along with rationale for the request, including the relevance to the local, state and/or national need. We can also help you focus your request. The Alliance advocates for overall FDA funding. We hope you do, too, but it makes sense to also request monies for the programs with which you are most familiar and benefit from the most.

For example, depending on what information the Member is asking for, we might highlight within our overall funding request the importance of 1/ more investment in data and technology infrastructure for the entire agency or 2/the need to invest more heavily in FSMA and the agency’s New Era of Smarter Food Safety); 3/ further investment in regulatory science tools in key developing areas, such as cell and gene therapy, real-world evidence, and digital health.

Some Member deadlines are likely to fall before the President’s request is released. For deadlines afterward, we will be able to provide more specificity in our request.

If you would like to know more or are interested in participating, please contact Roger Szemraj of the Alliance staff.

Editorial Note: The week’s Analysis and Commentary section was written by the Alliance’s Executive Director, Steven Grossman.