The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Budget: Fact Sheet

Summary

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates the safety of foods (including dietary supplements), cosmetics, and radiation-emitting products; the safety and effectiveness of drugs, biologics (e.g., vaccines), and medical devices; and public health aspects of tobacco products. Seven centers within FDA represent the broad program areas for which the agency has responsibility: the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN), the Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), the National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR), and the Center for Tobacco Products (CTP). Several other offices have agency-wide responsibilities.

FDA’s budget has two funding streams: annual appropriations (i.e., discretionary budget authority, or BA) and industry user fees. In FDA’s annual appropriation, Congress sets both the total amount of appropriated funds and the amount of user fees that the agency is authorized to collect and obligate for that fiscal year.

Between FY2012 and FY2016, FDA’s total program level increased from $3.832 billion to $4.745 billion. Although congressionally appropriated funding increased by 9% over that time period, user fee revenue increased more than 50%. The President’s FY2017 budget request was for a total program level of $4.826 billion, an increase of $81 million (+2%) over the FY2016 enacted appropriation of $4.745 billion. Both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees have reported their FY2017 Agriculture appropriations bills (H.R. 5054, S. 2956). This report will be updated with information on FDA funding for FY2017 once legislative action on appropriations for the new fiscal year is completed.