House Spending Deal Gives FDA Hike; Broaches Compounding, LDTs, Staff Cuts, Budget Gimmicks

Congressional leaders are pushing a tentative bipartisan fiscal 2017 funding agreement that would give FDA $39 million more than its fiscal 2016 enacted level. The agreement instructs FDA to work with Congress on a variety of issues, including compounding, regulation of laboratory-developed tests and agency staffing levels, and blocks the administration from using unrealistic user fee requests as a means of artificially boosting the agency's budget. The spending deal also provides a $2 billion increase for the National Institutes of...