Budget

House and Senate Democrats called on the Senate Appropriations health subcommittee to reschedule a previously postponed markup of the Labor-HHS spending bill, which includes a Democratic-authored amendment to block the Trump administration’s rule withholding Title X funding from facilities that perform abortions or refer patients for abortion.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that House Democrats’ bill to negotiating drug prices would save taxpayers $345 billion in six years, but that savings would come at the cost of 8 to 15 fewer drugs being invented over a decade -- FDA approves about 30 new drugs annually.

Health care policy experts say FDA and CMS need new staff, training and resources from Congress in order to collaborate on real-world evidence that could be used simultaneously for regulatory evaluation and new payment models.

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday (Sept. 19) passed a bill that would give FDA an $80 million funding boost in fiscal 2020, 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.

A major increase in FDA’s budget sought by the House may be slipping out of the agency’s reach due the strong likelihood the government will start fiscal 2020 under a continuing resolution, new hurdles to Senate passage of individual spending bills, and pressure on the House to ratchet back its non-defense spending targets to the meet Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019 budget ceiling.

The budget and debt ceiling deal reached by Congress and the White House extends sequestration on Medicare through 2029 to help pay for higher budget caps on FDA and other nondefense agencies -- a move the Congressional Budget Office says will increase spending by around 2% for most Medicare benefits through September 2027.

The House on Thursday (June 13) voted to add an amendment to its fiscal 2020 HHS funding bill that would increase funding for Graduate Medical Education by $5 million and pay for that by cutting Department of Education funding.

FDA’s drug center would receive an approximate $50 million increase in budget authority over fiscal 2019 levels under the 2020 funding bill passed by the House Appropriations agriculture subcommittee on Thursday (May 23), according to a preliminary analysis by the Alliance for a Stronger FDA.

FDA will kick off the start of a conversation with stakeholders on reforming dietary supplement law with a public meeting May 16, agency chief Scott Gottlieb tweeted Tuesday (March 19).