On May 9 and May 17, 2018, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce ordered 59 bills to be reported related to the nation’s response to the opioid epidemic. Because of the large number of related bills ordered reported by the Committee, CBO is publishing a single comprehensive document that includes estimates for each piece of legislation.
H.R. 5554, the Animal Drug and Animal Generic Drug User Fee Amendments of 2018, would authorize the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to collect and spend fees to cover the cost of expedited approval for the development and marketing of certain drugs for use in animals. The legislation would extend through fiscal year 2023, and make several changes to, the FDA’s existing approval processes and fee programs for brand-name and generic veterinary drugs, which expire at the end of fiscal year 2018. CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 5554 would reduce net discretionary outlays by $8 million over the 2019-2023 period, primarily because the spending of fees lags somewhat behind their collection.
Fees authorized under the bill would supplement funds appropriated to cover the FDA’s cost of reviewing certain applications and investigational submissions for brand-name and generic drugs for use in animals. Those fees could be collected and made available for obligation only to the extent and in the amounts provided in advance in appropriation acts. Under H.R. 5554, CBO estimates, the FDA would assess about $257 million in fees over the 2019-2023 period. Because the FDA could spend those funds, CBO estimates that budget authority for collections and spending would offset each other exactly in each year. CBO estimates that the delay between collecting and spending fees under the reauthorized programs would reduce net discretionary outlays by $14 million over the 2019-2023 period, assuming appropriation actions consistent with the bill.
Enacting H.R. 5554 would increase the FDA’s workload because the legislation would expand eligibility for conditional approval for certain drugs. The agency’s administrative costs also would increase because of regulatory activities required by a provision concerning petitions for additives intended for use in animal food. H.R. 5554 also would require the FDA to publish guidance or produce regulations on a range of topics, transmit a report to the Congress, and hold public meetings. CBO expects that the costs associated with those activities would not be covered by fees, and it estimates that implementing such provisions would cost $6 million over the 2019-2023 period.
H.R. 5554 would require developers and manufacturers of brand-name and generic veterinary drugs to pay application, product, establishment, and sponsor fees to the FDA. CBO estimates that about $51 million would be collected annually, on average, for a total of $257 million over the 2019-2023 period. Those amounts would not exceed the annual threshold for private-sector mandates in any year during that period.
H.R. 5554 would impose private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA). CBO estimates that the costs of the mandates would not exceed the UMRA threshold for private entities.
