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# Trump Budget Relies on User Fee Hike to Add $1.3 Billion
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/trump-budget-relies-on-user-fee-hike-to-add-1-3-billion/
- Published: 2017-05-23T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T22:25:22.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: FDA Policy/General, #legacy-id-D5138756

The Trump Administration’s just-released [budget request ](https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3728650/HHS-FY-2018-Budget-in-Brief.pdf?ref=fdaweb.com)is proposing to increase user fee collections in fiscal year (FY) 2018 by $1.306 billion (68%) over current FY 2017 levels to $3.223 billion. For example, prescription drug fees would jump by $508 million in 2018 — increasing by 67% from $755 million in FY 2017 to $1.262 billion. Medical device fees would more than triple, from $126 million to $429 million.

The budget request closely tracks an outline presented by HHS secretary **Tom Price** last week in a letter to Congress that called for increases to 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.”

  
So far, lawmakers seem reluctant to disrupt the carefully negotiated user fee agreements to reauthorize the programs that are currently proceeding through the House and Senate. Senate HELP Committee ranking member **Patty Murray** (D-WA) had this to say: “Democrats and Republicans in Congress have worked together on reauthorizing the user fee agreements to ensure the FDA can meet its responsibilities to patients and families across the country — so it is disappointing that President Trump continues to attempt to inject partisanship into an otherwise bipartisan process. Today’s proposal from the Administration would upend our work and if implemented, leave the FDA hamstrung and without the federal investments it relies on to carry out its important public health work. I hope and expect that Republicans and Democrats alike will reject it.” Committee chair **Lamar Alexander** (R-TN) told [*Politico*](http://www.politico.com/tipsheets/politico-pulse/2017/05/with-dc-focused-on-russia-fallout-what-happens-to-health-care-220358?ref=fdaweb.com) that the administration’s request “can be considered the next time the FDA negotiates the user fee agreements with the manufacturers of drugs and devices, but it is way too late to have an impact on this year’s agreements.”  
  
Meanwhile, a disappointed [Alliance for a Stronger FDA ](https://strengthenfda.org/2017/05/23/resident-trumps-fy-18-budget-request-threatens-fdas-mission/?ref=fdaweb.com)said the agency’s “ability to carry out its essential mission is threatened by the funding approach.” On the positive side, the proposal would provide FDA with $ 5.1 billion in total funding, a 10% increase ($456 million) over FY 17\. “The higher funding level,” the Alliance said, “reflects the Administration’s view that FDA’s programs need to be sustained and grow... However, we are gravely disappointed that the budget proposal reduces the amount of FDA funding that comes from taxpayers,” the Alliance continued. “Under the budget request, the agency would see an $871 million cut in the agency’s taxpayer-funded budget authority (BA) appropriation and the replacement of those dollars with a proposed doubling of industry user fees. “We are especially concerned because the Congress has made clear that these additional user fees will not be adopted. Thus, the Administration has not proposed a viable pathway for the agency to avoid a 31% cut in FDA’s BA appropriation.”