Smokescreen? FDA Won’t Say How It Spends User Fees
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Wikimedia Commons
This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire
By Michael Chamberlain
Real Clear Wire
IS THE FDA SECRETLY FUNDING NON-PROFITS TO LOBBY?
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is funded by Congress, but it also collects “user fees” from regulated industries to fund testing and regulation of those industries’ products. By law, fees from the dairy industry must be used only to ensure dairy products are safe – they can’t go toward overseeing the safety of cold medications.
Of course, agencies can still spend the funds on a range of permissible activities related to the industry’s activities. While most agencies rely on at least a portion of their appropriations from Congress to operate,
