Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., has placed the user fee FDA Reauthorization Act on the Senate legislative calendar, and is just waiting on a nod from the chamber leadership to bring it up for consideration on the floor. On July 18, after successfully passing an Agriculture/FDA funding bill for 2018 onto the full committee, Ag/FDA Subcommittee Chair John Hoeven, R-N.D., characterized FDARA as non-controversial and ripe for passage. Meanwhile, industries' hopes for device tax repeal as part of legislation repealing the Affordable Care Act are fading away.
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., placed the House-passed device and drug user fee bill, the FDA Reauthorization Act, on the Senate's legislative calendar July 17, which means the bill could be brought up for consideration sometime this week.
Also, the second collapse of support for an Affordable Care Act repeal and replacement bill (Better Care Reconciliation Act), including device tax repeal provisions, in the Senate, following defections of Sens