KENNEDY ON FDA BUDGET INCREASE
WASHINGTON, DC— Yesterday, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, released the following statement in response to the passage of budget amendment # 4148, which will increase the amount allocated for the FDA by $71 million, for a total increase for FY 2009 of $375.
“When American families go to the grocery store, they shouldn’t have to worry about the safety of the food they buy. When they are prescribed a drug, they shouldn’t have to worry that a contaminant in the drug might kill them. They ought to be able to count on FDA to stand guard for them, use the latest and best science to protect them, and to do what’s needed to detect dangerous products. I’m pleased that the Senate has made a big first step toward rebuilding the FDA. By adopting my amendment, the Budget now includes an increase of $375 million for the FDA, the amount the FDA Science Board recommended for 2009.”
Summary of FY2009 Budget Resolution Amendment #4148
Filed by Senator Kennedy
To increase by $71 million the amount budgeted for the FDA, for a total increase of $375 for FY 2009
The Budget Committee’s budget bill increases FDA’s budget by $304 million. This amendment would increase the amount budgeted for FDA for fiscal year 2009 by $71 million, to make the total increase for FDA $375 million, the amount recommended by the FDA Science Board. This proposed increase in FDA’s budget is offset by function 920.
In the fall, the FDA’s advisory Science Board issued a scathing report about FDA’s inability to fulfill its mission.
FDA lacks adequate funds to ensure the safety of the Nation’s food supply and to maintain and develop the scientific expertise to review the medical products of tomorrow.
FDA doesn’t inspect facilities that produce food with any frequency, and plants in China and India that produce drugs for the United States are inspected perhaps once a decade.
FDA’s information technology systems are completely inadequate, as we learned most recently when FDA failed to inspect a factory that produces the drug Heparin.
