05.01.13
The U.S. government was forced into sequestration on March 1 when it did not reach an agreement on how to cut spending by $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years. As a result, many government programs were automatically trimmed down. The sequester cuts discretionary spending across the board by $109.3 billion a year from 2014-2021 and $85.4 billion in 2013. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was to be cut by $206 million, and part of those cuts limited the agency’s access to user fees paid by medtech companies for device review processes.
However, on March 20, the Senate passed a spending bill that eased the blow to some agencies, including the FDA. The $984 billion Senate package then moved to the House of Representatives, which on March 6 approved its own spending plan of roughly the same amount. On March 31, the House approved the Senate spending bill unaltered in a 318-to-109 vote.
Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) President Steve Ubl was grateful to the Senate for “approving a new continuing resolution (CR) that preserves House-passed language correcting an anomaly in the current CR that would have barred FDA from spending $40 million of the fees it is collecting from device and diagnostics companies.”
“These improvements serve the interests of patients, industry and FDA,” Ubl continued. “But the current CR that funds the government through the end of this month allowed the agency to access and spend only those device user fee amounts authorized for FY 2012. Passage of the new CR allows FDA to access and spend the increased fee levels while continuing to implement needed reforms.”
However, on March 20, the Senate passed a spending bill that eased the blow to some agencies, including the FDA. The $984 billion Senate package then moved to the House of Representatives, which on March 6 approved its own spending plan of roughly the same amount. On March 31, the House approved the Senate spending bill unaltered in a 318-to-109 vote.
Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) President Steve Ubl was grateful to the Senate for “approving a new continuing resolution (CR) that preserves House-passed language correcting an anomaly in the current CR that would have barred FDA from spending $40 million of the fees it is collecting from device and diagnostics companies.”
“These improvements serve the interests of patients, industry and FDA,” Ubl continued. “But the current CR that funds the government through the end of this month allowed the agency to access and spend only those device user fee amounts authorized for FY 2012. Passage of the new CR allows FDA to access and spend the increased fee levels while continuing to implement needed reforms.”