We are Excited for Our Upcoming Alliance Hill Days. Please Participate!
This week’s Analysis and Commentary is a Q&A on some of the questions we are being asked about FDA and the FY 24 budget/appropriations process.
House Hill Days (Virtual) Scheduled for April 25 and 26. Please Participate! Each Spring the Alliance for a Stronger FDA reaches out to Hill offices to emphasize our support for robust FDA appropriated resources. Our first two days will be Tuesday, April 25 and Wednesday, April 26. So far, we have more than 40 virtual meetings scheduled! Please sign up by letting Ben Dash know.
As veterans of this process will recall, we break into teams which work to represent a broad cross section of our membership. This illustrates the breadth of FDA’s work and its central role in public health and our economy.
We ask Alliance members to check their calendars and let Ben Dash know your availability on those two days. This promises to be a challenging appropriations cycle and your voice is important–both for the FDA overall and for optimum funding of areas that most concern you and your membership.
Hill Days on the Senate Side Scheduled for May 2 and 3. Continuing our Hill efforts, we are planning Senate meetings on May 2nd and 3rd. The initial focus will be on appropriators as well as the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. We ask Alliance members to check their calendars and let Ben Dash know your availability on those two days.
Dr. Califf Testifies Before Senate Ag/FDA Appropriations Subcommittee. This past week FDA Commissioner Califf appeared before the Senate Ag/FDA Appropriations Subcommittee and discussed COVID-19 response, employee pay and infrastructure challenges, food supply chains, mitigating risk of chemical exposure, federal/state/private sector collaboration and a host of other current topics. He also addressed questions about the Administration’s proposed FDA budget for FY24. A link to Dr. Califf’s opening statement can be found here and a link to the video can be found here. This news account provides additional detail.
Catch up on What the Alliance is Telling Congress for FY24. Every year, the House and Senate Ag/FDA appropriations subcommittees request “testimony for the record,” an opportunity for the Alliance to formally deliver our “ask” to the key Congressional subcommittees. You can read our testimony here.
House Appropriations Chair Granger Talks About Timing of Mark-ups and Floor Action. Chair Kay Granger projected the House schedule for addressing annual spending bills: mark-ups in May with the goal of bringing measures to the floor by June.
Those plans will be affected by the emerging House GOP proposal for substantial cuts in spending in exchange for lifting the nation's borrowing cap. This week’s Analysis and Commentary analyzes the situation and considers what comes next.
The Alliance’s FY24 budget webinar series concluded Friday with Dr. Judith McMeekin, head of FDA’s Office of Regulatory Affairs. On April 14th, the Alliance held a webinar with Dr. Judith McMeekin. A summary of her remarks can be found here and a transcript can be found here.
Catch Up on What FDA is Thinking. The Alliance has held 10 webinars so far in 2023, including six that focussed directly on FDA’s budget. There is no better way to gain insight than to read the in-depth, hour-long, perspective each has provided to the Alliance:
Dep. Comm. for Policy Andi Fristedt, (transcript here.)
Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf (transcript here.)
CDRH Director Elizabeth Hillebrenner (transcript here.)
Prin. Deputy Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock (transcript here)
CDRH Director Dr. Jeff Shuren (transcript here)
CFSAN Director Dr. Susan Mayne (summary here; transcript here)
CBER Director Dr. Peter Marks (summary here; transcript here)
CDER Director Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni (summary here; transcript here)
CVM Director Ms. Tracey Forfa, J.D. (summary here; transcript here)