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# Eyes on Gottlieb as He Heads for First Hill Testimony
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/eyes-on-gottlieb-as-he-heads-for-first-hill-testimony/
- Published: 2017-05-19T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T22:24:46.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: FDA Policy/General, #legacy-id-D5138735

Newly sworn-in FDA commissioner **Scott Gottlieb** will visit Capitol Hill for his first testimony as the agency head 5/25 during a [House budget hearing](https://appropriations.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=394888&ref=fdaweb.com). FDA observers will closely watch for Gottlieb’s stance on the Trump Administration’s proposed budget for FDA in 2018, which cuts the agency’s budget authority (BA) by 37%. Trump’s so-called “skinny budget” released in mid-March would replace $1 billion in BA funding with $1 billion in new user fees. The full version of the budget request is set for release 5/23.

  
The Alliance for a Stronger FDA has said they are “hopeful (but not necessarily optimistic) that the Administration has abandoned this approach and will continue to maintain support for the vital activities at FDA.” But that hope may have been dashed when HHS secretary **Tom Price** earlier this week sent a letter to Congress indicating that the Administration’s budget blueprint still calls for increasing and restructuring the medical product user fee programs at FDA so they are 100% reliant on user fees, with no funding triggers that require budget authority financing. “This would replace the need for new budget authority to cover pre-market review costs, while maintaining our commitment to speed the approval of safe and effective medical products,” Price [wrote](https://www.help.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/SecPriceUsefeeLetter.pdf?ref=fdaweb.com). “This will benefit both taxpayers and patients.”