House and Senate Progress–and Then Pause–on FY 25 Appropriations

This week’s Analysis and Commentary is entitled: “Are We There Yet? Appropriations Q&A for Mid-July 2024.” 

House and Senate Progress–and Then Pause–on FY 25 Appropriations. Prior to the one-week recess for the Republican Nominating Convention, both House and Senate appropriations committees finished marking up their versions of the FY 25 Agriculture/FDA appropriations bill. 

As described below, there are several next steps in the House. The Appropriations Committee’s goal is to bring the Agriculture/FDA bill to the House floor in the two weeks starting July 22 and concluding before the House goes on August recess on August 2. 

However, how the unexpected House defeat of the Legislative Branch Appropriations bill factors into the consideration of the Agriculture/FDA bill and the six other pending bills is yet to be determined.

The earliest time that the Senate can take up their version of the Ag/FDA funding bill would appear to be the week of July 29, but no floor schedule has been announced for the bill. 

Agriculture/FDA Appropriation Amendments Submitted to House Rules Committee.  The House Rules Committee solicited proposed amendments to the Agriculture/FDA funding bill, through 4:00 pm Wednesday.  No amendments regarding total specific FDA funding levels have been submitted. So that our Friday Update readers can more readily access and evaluate proposed amendments to the House version of the FY25 Agriculture/FDA Appropriations Bill, we have linked brief summaries and other relevant information here.  

The Rules Committee is expected to propose a rule for the consideration of HR 9027, the Agriculture/FDA Appropriations bill, at its Monday, July 22, 4:00 meeting. Only those amendments specified in the rule can be offered to the bill.

Next steps for the Senate Agriculture/FDA Bill. As we previously reported, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Murray (D-WA) has not announced a floor schedule for consideration of the Agriculture/FDA funding bill.  The Senate Committee will consider four bills - Commerce, Justice, Science; Interior, Environment; State, Foreign Operations; and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development - on Thursday, July 25, at 9:30.   

It is possible additional funding may be made available at a later date as a result of the funding agreement reached between Senators Murray and Collins.  Senator Murray in full committee last week said: “For the awareness of Members, neither the 302(a) or 302(b)s include any of the adjustments agreed to as part of the FRA agreement, or the additional emergency funding that Vice Chair Collins and I have agreed to. Similar to last year, those amounts will be added later, as we move our bipartisan bills through the process.”

Comparison of House and Senate Appropriation Proposals. With the approval of the House and Senate Appropriation Committees, (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.  

The Senate bill provides 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. This week’s Analysis and Commentary discusses the status of report language in the House and Senate bills. 

Project 2025 Recommendations Regarding FDA. There have been several news reports regarding recommendations made by Project 2025 in Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise. While not a formally endorsed document, it may be helpful to be familiar with the policies it embodies.

Several recommendations are offered for FDA, beginning on numbered page 456.  They include  laws that alter pharmaceutical  competition; the approval process for laboratory-developed or modified medical tests; drug shortages; abortion drugs; and vaccine importation.  No recommendations regarding FDA funding are included.

Also, there are a number of recommendations about the federal workforce that might affect FDA. Those proposals are discussed starting on page 69.