FDA News In Brief

Supplemental appropriations could boost FDA funding: Legislation scheduled for markup by the Senate Appropriations Committee May 15 would give FDA an extra $275 million, bringing the agency's total funding increase in 2008 to $425 million. The boost, sponsored by Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., is part of a broader emergency supplemental appropriations bill. It would direct $125 million for food safety activities, $100 million to medical product and drug safety activities, $40 million to modernizing FDA science and the FDA workforce, and $10 million to upgrade FDA facilities outside Washington, D.C. Among other uses, new funding could allow FDA to open overseas offices in two more countries, launch a pediatric devices safety initiative and conduct more medical product inspections, Kohl says