Budget

Health stakeholders are praising Senate and House appropriators for permanently repealing the so-called “Cadillac” health insurance and medical device taxes in the end-of-year spending package released Monday (Dec. 16), following years of lobbying to get rid of the industry taxes Congress had passed to offset the coverage expansion in the Affordable Care Act.

Negotiations for the delay or repeal of several health care-related taxes are still underway after Senate and House appropriations leaders reached a tentative funding deal that will carry the federal government through fiscal 2020, a lobbyist closely tracking the taxes tells Inside Health Policy.

The latest House continuing resolution to fund the government, unveiled Monday (Nov. 18), extends through Dec. 20 the same package of so-called health extenders included in the short-term CR that is set to expire Nov. 21, including an extended delay of the Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital pay cuts.

House and Senate appropriations panels are both pushing funding increases for FDA, but whether the agency will get additional money for fiscal 2020 hangs in the balance as lawmakers eye at least one more short-term continuing resolution (CR) and the prospects of individual appropriations bills remains unclear.

A continuing resolution to fund the government and a number of so-called health extenders through Nov. 21 passed the Senate on Thursday (Sept. 26) and the president is expected to sign the legislation.

The House on Thursday (Sept. 19) passed a short-term continuing resolution to fund the government through Nov. 21 and avert a government shutdown Oct. 1, and the Senate reportedly will take up the CR next week.

The Senate Appropriations agriculture subcommittee passed a fiscal 2020 funding bill Tuesday (Sept. 17) that would give FDA an $80 million increase over fiscal 2019 levels, with substantial investments in the agency’s medical countermeasures initiatives, pathogen reduction efforts, compounding oversight, food safety and outbreak prevention, cannabidiol activities and infrastructure maintenance.

Bipartisan lawmakers from both chambers of Congress applauded as the Senate passed a budget deal on Thursday (Aug. 1) that would raise government spending limits and suspend a debt ceiling until 2021.

An FDA expert said the two-year deal reached by Congress and the White House on Monday (July 22) to raise the government’s budget caps is good for FDA in that it moves Congress closer to passing a 6% funding increase for the agency for fiscal 2020.