NEW YORK – President Joe Biden signed into law a $1.65 trillion spending bill that, in addition to averting a government shutdown, increases the budgets of the US Food and Drug Administration, National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Under the bill, the FDA receives $3.5 billion in discretionary funding, representing a $226 million year-over-year increase and bringing total funding, including revenue from user fees, to $6.6 billion.
The funding includes specific increases targeted at addressing the opioid crisis, medical supply chain issues, medical device cybersecurity, and increasing and strengthening in-person inspections of foreign drug manufacturers.
The bill also appropriates $50 million to accelerate medical product development as authorized in the 21st Century Cures Act.
The bill provides $47.5 billion for the NIH, a year-over-year increase of $2.5 billion. Funding includes $7.3 billion for the National Cancer Institute, including $216 million for the NCI component of the Cancer Moonshot; $3.7 billion for research into Alzheimer's disease and other dementias; $75 million for expanded access and activities authorized in the ACT for ALS Act; $57 million in expanded support for minority-serving institutions and health disparities research; $3.3 billion for HIV/AIDS research; and $270 million for universal flu vaccine research, among others.
The bill provides $9.2 billion for the CDC, an increase of $760 million above fiscal year 2022 funding.
Over half of the increased funding is directed at public health infrastructure investments. These include $350 million for nationwide public health infrastructure and capacity; $175 million to modernize public health data surveillance and analytics; $71 million in public health workforce initiatives; $293 million for global public health protection; $187 million for the National Center for Health Statistics; $735 million for public health emergency preparedness cooperative agreements; and $197 million for the antibiotic resistance initiative.