As temperatures begin to heat up in Washington, D.C., Congress heats up on budget decisions, with the Food and Drug Administration requesting $7.2 billion in the President’s fiscal year 2025 budget proposal.
The budget request period is from October 1, 2024 to September 30, 2025.
The FDA’s requested funding will be utilized to strengthen food safety and nutrition, advance medical product safety, support supply chain resiliency, enhance the Agency’s public health and mission support capabilities, and modernize the Agency’s infrastructure and facilities.
The request includes a $495 million increase, 7.4% above the fiscal year 2023 budget, including $15 million to protect and promote a safe and nutritious U.S. food supply. Funding for FDA’s Human Food Initiative will modernize FDA’s ability to prevent or mitigate foodborne illness outbreaks by investing in tools and processes needed to strengthen root cause investigations.
For information on the status of the various budget requests, many are turning to Steven Grossman, executive director of the Alliance for a Stronger FDA, who reports that the House Appropriations Committee is likely to hold an amendments meeting on July 10.
“No formal committee dates have yet been announced for the USDA/FDA bill, which wouldn’t be surprising given that the House is in recess this week, but they are expected to come up on July 10th. With the House in recess the week of July 15th, the bill could be taken up on July 10th or held off until later in July,” Grossman reports.
The House Agriculture/FDA Subcommittee was given a total discretionary allocation of $25.873 billion, which is $355 million (1.35%) lower than the enacted amount and $2.688 billion (9.4%) lower than the President’s budget request for FY 2024. The House Subcommittee action represents a reduction of less than 1% in FDA’s salary and expense accounts, a lower percentage reduction than the overall Agriculture/FDA bill.
Grossman also expects the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee amendments meeting to take place the week of July 8. “The Senate is currently in recess until July 8. In a statement to the full Senate on Tuesday (June 18), Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Patty Murray said she plans to hold the committee’s first FY 25 amendments meeting the week the Senate returns from its July 4 recess,” he said.
“She did not say which bills might be considered, but there are reports that she has provided FY25 302(b) appropriations to the Agriculture/FDA, Military Construction and Legislative Assembly subcommittees, meaning that it could be a bill that is considered the week of July 8,” the alliance report stated.
Senator Murray, in her floor statement, also argued for an increase in non-defense discretionary spending (NDD): “We cannot accept a net reduction in the level of substantial resources to NDDs in FY25. A 1% increase would mean that.” She specifically mentioned the FDA, saying, “When the FDA removes an unsafe product from the shelves, that is an NDD.” It’s good that she has the FDA in mind. For further discussion of its impact, see this week’s analysis and commentary.
The Senate recesses the week of July 15, so the bill could be considered either the week of July 8 or later.
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