Extra $275 Million for FDA Delayed By Lawmakers’ Fight Over War Funding

The Senate Appropriations Committee passed an amendment last week granting the FDA an immediate $275 million infusion, a sum FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach recently told a senior Republican lawmaker was necessary.

The amendment, also passed by the House last Thursday, stipulates that $48.5 million be used for CDER operations and related field activities of the Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA); $23.5 million for CBER and related ORA activities; and $21.8 million for the FDA Office of the Commissioner, Office of Operations, Office of Scientific and Medical Programs, Office of International and Special Programs and Office of Policy, Planning and Preparedness. The remainder is to be used for the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition and other activities.

The amendment makes the $275 million available through the end of fiscal 2009 and stipulates that $100 million must be used for drug, device and biologic safety activities, $40 million for modernizing the agency’s science and workforce, $10 million for capital spending on laboratory facilities outside the Washington, D.C., area and $125 million for food protection.
 
The FDA’s money is in one of three amendments passed by the Senate committee, which has sent them to Senate leaders who may introduce them as legislation this week. The other two amendments involve policy and funding for the war in Iraq.

The House has voted on its versions of the three amendments, approving the one with funding for the FDA. But it did not approve one of the two remaining amendments related to the Iraq war. Senate and House staff were not able to provide bill or resolution numbers for the amendments and are uncertain what the next step for the amendments may be as Democrats and Republicans spar over increased funding for the war.

Von Eschenbach’s letter, which contains nine pages of detail, can be accessed at www.fdanews.com/ext/files/Drug_Industry_Daily/vonEschenbachSpector.pdf.