FDA's OVERALL BUDGET FOR FISCAL 1989 TOTALS $520 MIL

FDA's OVERALL BUDGET FOR FISCAL 1989 TOTALS $520 MIL. under a tentative plan drafted by the Office of Management & Budget and described in Jan. 6 budget documents. An OMB proposal of $520 mil. for the year would be $43 mil. higher than 1988 appropriations of $477 mil. and $33 mil. (6.8%) more than the $487 mil. (102% of the 1988 figure) provided for 1989 by the Budget Reconcsiliation Act, which passed Dec. 22. The budget "passback" document contains OMB's decisions on the shape of the Administration's budget proposal for fiscal 1989, and it constitutes a review of requests by each agency of each federal department. FDA Commissioner Young, HHS Secretary Bowen and other agency and department heads may appeal the numbers in OMB's passback. After an appeal, OMB will incorporate any changes into President Reagan's proposed budget, to be submitted to Congress in mid-February. OMB has dropped its user fee proposal. The document states that "OMB dropped the proposal to offset budget authority through collections of user fees for reviewing new product applications." The Administration proposed a user fee program in its previous five budget requests, but authorizing legislation never found a champion in Congress. Overall, HHS would ask Congress for a fiscal 1989 budget of $12.5 bil., under the passback. The total represents a 5% increase over the department's 1988 funding level. A major factor in the increase is "continued emphasis in prevention, treatment, and outreach activities related to AIDS," the document states. Departmental funding for AIDS-related activities would total $1.3 bil., an increase of 37% over the fiscal 1988 appropriation. An FDA request for viral laboratory construction is "not explicitly provided for" in the passback. However, the document states, $25 mil. is provided for "AIDS construction" in Bethesda using an account that consolidates AIDS-related funding for all agencies. OMB is proposing to hold FDA manpower at a reduced rate through fiscal 1988 and 1989. Actual agency full-time equivalents at the end of 1987 totaled 7,151, the document states. OMB's target for 1988 and 1989 was 7,069 and HHS's request was 7,069 for 1988 and 7,316 for 1989-1993. However, OMB has established an "allowance" of 7,054 FTEs for 1988-1993.