Bush Administration requests $275 million increase for FDA in FY 2009 budget

The Bush Administration on Monday requested that Congress allocate an additional $275 million in fiscal year 2009 for FDA, the New York Times reports. The funds would be used to improve drug and food safety in the U.S. (Harris, New York Times, 6/10).

The additional funds would represent a nearly 18% increase in funding from the agency's current level, the AP/San Francisco Chronicle reports (Yost, AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 6/9). HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said the $275 million request would be in addition to an earlier request for $50.7 million. FDA's FY 2009 budget would be more than $2 billion with the increase (New York Times, 6/10). The administration requested that the increase be offset by reductions to other programs (Clarke/Higa, CQ Today, 6/9).

FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach in mid-May wrote a letter to Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) requesting an additional $275 million for the agency to overcome shortfalls highlighted in several hearings after a worldwide recall of the tainted blood thinner heparin from China (Mundy, Wall Street Journal, 6/10). The administration's request comes two days after a large-scale recall of raw tomatoes due to a multistate outbreak of salmonella food poisoning. CDC said that at least 23 people have been hospitalized and 145 were sickened in 16 states. The source of the tomatoes has not been determined (New York Times, 6/10).

Most of the funds, about $265 million, would be used for salaries and expenses to hire more employees to inspect imported and domestic food and medical products, according to the administration (Sanchez, CongressDaily, 6/10). FDA would hire an additional 490 employees with the funds, in addition to hires the agency already had planned. The agency would use the money to open offices in China, India and Central America, according to the Times. Leavitt said the additional hires would increase the work force by 1,500 people, an increase of about 15% (New York Times, 6/10). According to the AP/Chronicle, with the funds, FDA would conduct an additional 1,000 foreign inspections and an additional 1,000 domestic inspections of food and medical products (AP/San Francisco Chronicle, 6/10). Leavitt said the agency is "going from an intervention strategy to a strategy of prevention with verification" (Wall Street Journal, 6/10).

The funding also would be used to improve the agency's information technology infrastructure. The remaining $10 million would be used to improve facilities to prepare for new technologies and expand laboratories (CongressDaily, 6/10).

Meanwhile, the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday is scheduled to hold a hearing to discuss the disparity between FDA's intended efforts and the agency's ability to enact those plans with its current funding level, the Times reports (New York Times, 6/10).