The President’s FY24 Budget Request and the Appropriations Cycle
It is official: the FY 24 President’s Budget Request will be released on March 9, about a month later than usual. This is the formal beginning of the appropriations cycle for this year.
What Will Be in the President’s Budget Request? The blueprint for spending more than $1.6 trillion in FY 24 is understandably massive. The FDA portion (which is called the Congressional Justification) is often 400 pages of funding proposals, program descriptions, and tables. It covers all FDA funding—taxpayer funding, medical products user fees, tobacco user fees, and other miscellaneous sources.
Because the user fee numbers for each year are fixed (base + adjustment) by the 5-year user fee legislation all the focus is on the taxpayer-funded portion, which is known as budget authority (BA) appropriations. In FY 23, that totaled $3.5 billion, a $226 million (7%) increase over the previous fiscal year.
As the time draws closer, the Alliance will provide guidance on how to read and understand the President’s budget request. Once released on March 9, we will be providing our Alliance members and the media with our analysis.
What Will the Alliance Be Doing During and Immediately After the President’s Budget Release? On March 9, we will be working to define the key topline numbers in the FY24 request and assess what they mean for FDA. As soon as we can, we will produce an initial analysis for our Alliance members and circulate a press release to the media.
After our initial analysis, the Alliance continues the process of understanding all aspects of the budget request. It is not unusual for us to be talking about the President’s budget request in detail for at least a month—always reflecting new insights into what is being proposed. That process never entirely ends because the House and Senate appropriations committees use the President’s request as a baseline in their tables. The President’s request is also an important benchmark for the Alliance in determining our “ask” that will be used in lobbying and testimony.
An important part of educating and advocating for FDA resources is six budget webinars in which the 5 Center directors and the head of the Office of Regulatory Affairs appear. These will start two weeks after the budget release and continue for about 3 weeks.
Although there will be multiple opportunities (and reminders), FDA stakeholders might want to decide now which webinars they want to attend. Registering today is a good way “to save the date.”
3/23 11:00 AM Dr. Shuren, CDRH..................Shuren event registration
3/29 2:30 PM Dr. McMeekin, ORA...............McMeekin event registration
3/31 11:00 AM Dr. Mayne, CFSAN............. ..Mayne event registration
4/04 3:30 PM Dr. Marks, CBER................. ..Marks event registration
4/05 2:00 PM Dr. Cavazzoni, CDER........ Cavazzonni event registration
4/10 3:00 PM Ms. Forfa, CVM 3:00 .............Forfa event registration
What is the Timing of the Appropriations Process? Based on a March 9 submission of the President’s budget request, here is the default schedule for the FY 24 appropriations process.
Departments and agencies can expect to testify on their budgets starting in late March through early May.
Subcommittee mark-ups might begin toward the end of April through June.
The House might consider bills on the floor as early as late June and July.
The Senate could act in July, but more likely September.
Most years, the appropriations schedule described above runs into budgetary and political issues and is never as smooth as suggested. Particularly this year, we expect macro budgetary issues to drive scheduling as Congress considers possible rollbacks in total spending, a fight over defense and non-defense spending, and a debt limit fight that encompasses both.