House approves FDA appropriations

Executive Summary

As part of an agriculture appropriations package that includes $1.7 billion for FDA in fiscal 2008, House approves language barring the agency from spending any of the money to close any of its field labs or district offices. FDA's proposed reorganization has triggered an investigation by the House Energy and Commerce Committee Oversight Subcommittee. The panel's chairman, Bart Stupak, D-Mich., and full committee Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., charge in a July 31 letter to Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach that the agency has "failed to produce a credible rational" for the lab closings. The Senate will take up its appropriations bill when it returns from summer vacation in September (1"The Pink Sheet" July 23, 2007, p. 14)...