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House Approves $150 Million More for FDA in Fiscal 2008

June 24, 2008

Lawmakers voted last week to give the FDA $150 million more for this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. The agency could continue to spend the money through Sept. 30, 2009.

The amount approved in the House vote on H.R. 2642, a supplemental funding bill, is a little more than half the $275 million approved by the Senate in its amendment to the bill in May.

The Senate version included $100 million for medical devices, drugs and biologics as suggested by FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach in a letter to Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.).

The supplemental now goes to the Senate, where no action on it was scheduled as of press time.

Also last week, the House Agriculture Subcommittee approved a fiscal 2009 budget of approximately $2.1 billion for the FDA.

The budget includes $282 million more than originally requested by the administration, according to subcommittee Chairwoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.). That increase covers the additional $275 million that HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt recently requested.<