Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
The House Appropriations Committee late Wednesday approved its FY25 Agriculture-FDA spending bill on a party line vote of 29-26, keeping funding for the FDA relatively flat at $6.75 billion.
Why it matters: The decision to spare the FDA from major cuts in the House makes it likelier the agency will at worst end up with flat funding, as it did last year.
Zoom in: The Ag-FDA blueprint is funded at $25.9 billion — a 1.35% reduction from FY24 that largely falls on Agriculture Department programs.
- FDA spending is slightly higher than the FY24 level of $6.72 billion.
- Republicans rejected an amendment from Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz that would have struck language blocking the FDA from issuing a menthol ban or setting maximum nicotine levels for cigarettes until the agency meets certain requirements to stop illicit e-cigarettes from abroad.
Between the lines: This year's Ag-FDA bill didn't include a contentious abortion pill rider that could have caused trouble for moderate Republicans.
- Last year, those moderates helped tank the Ag-FDA bill on the House floor over language that would have reversed FDA rules around dispensing the widely used abortion pill mifepristone via mail and at retail pharmacies.
What we're watching: Senate appropriators are due to reveal their 302(b) allocations on Thursday, which will give a further indication of what FDA can expect in that chamber's bill.
