WASHINGTON — Senate committee leaders have struck an agreement to reauthorize five-year user fee deals for the Food and Drug Administration, although details of a broader stopgap government spending bill remain unfinished.
Together, the deals make up roughly one-third of the FDA’s budget and ensure the agency can pay staff in charge of product reviews and approvals for prescription drugs, biologics and medical devices. The reauthorization is expected to hitch a ride on the short-term government funding bill Congress is expected to take up next week.
Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee ranking member Richard M. Burr, R-N.C., said Thursday that one of his offers to Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., had been accepted. He said his provisions addressing the baby formula shortage in the original bill were not included, but he did not offer further details on what policy riders made the cut.
