Budget

Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock told lawmakers Thursday (June 10) that FDA intends to have its domestic facility inspection program upgraded and fully running again by the end of summer 2021 for the first time since inspections were halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In its fiscal 2022 budget justification released Friday (May 28), FDA identifies several legislative proposals it says could help with the agency’s COVID-19 pandemic response, including by giving FDA authority to require specific medical device supply chain information, request facility records in advance or in lieu of inspections, and share medical product information with state and local governments.

The President’s budget includes $163 billion over the next 10 years to make permanent the enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits that were enacted as part of the American Rescue Plan, but the budget punts other health care priorities, including a public option, to Congress. 

A bipartisan group of senators including Senate Finance Ranking Republican Mike Crapo (ID) are reintroducing legislation that would direct the Congressional Budget Office to consider savings from preventive services when estimating the cost of legislation and would let Congressional leaders get an analysis of those measures beyond the 10-year budget window.

There are no drug pricing measures in the discretionary spending outline that the Biden administration released Friday (April 10), but they are expected to appear in the president’s budget request later this spring that senior administration officials said will include offsets.

President Joe Biden’s fiscal year 2022 discretionary budget preview, released Friday (April 9), builds off health priorities in the recently enacted American Rescue Plan and proposed American Jobs Plan by calling for additional funding for home- and community-based services, tackling the opioid crisis, rural health and more.

The House on Wednesday (Dec. 9) passed a one-week government funding extension as lawmakers continue to negotiate a potential COVID-19 relief package and stakeholders push to get their priorities, like a fix for pay cuts to certain physicians and a continued moratorium on the Medicare sequester, into an end-of-the-year bill.

The White House is asking Congress to fund certain so-called Medicare and Medicaid extenders -- most of which are set to run through Nov. 30 -- as part of an expected continuing resolution to keep the government open in fiscal 2021, and an Office of Management and Budget document obtained by sister news service Inside Defense also says the White House would consider other policies that often ride along with the extenders, like a delay in cuts to Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital payments.

House Appropriators on Thursday (July 9) passed out of committee an FDA funding bill that would give the agency authority to mandate the recall of unsafe prescription and over-the-counter drugs.