Democrats attack FDA work as funding weighed

By Lisa Richwine

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. congressional Democrats on Wednesday sharply criticized the Food and Drug Administration's performance and said officials had failed to ask for adequate funding for inspections and drug safety oversight.

The lawmakers said the FDA had used insufficient funding

to explain its handling of side-effect controversies or infrequent inspections of drug manufacturing plants.

"The FDA is taking the bargain basement approach and then using it as an excuse for its poor performance," Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat, said at a hearing.

DeLauro chairs a House appropriations panel that is considering how much taxpayer funding to allocate for the FDA for fiscal year 2009, which starts in October.

Reports from scientific experts, as well as industry and consumer groups, have called for a major increase to the FDA's roughly $2-billion-a-year budget for overseeing about one-quarter of the U.S. economy.

But lawmakers said they had increased funding in recent years but had not seen improvements in FDA operations. They also blamed FDA officials for not requesting enough money to deal with growing demands and an increase in imported food and drugs.

"We gave you what you requested, and more ... I don't know what you've been doing with the money. You can't take care of basic functions," DeLauro said.

The FDA has been criticized in recent years as being slow to respond to side effects that emerge with prescription drugs after they reach the market, and for being ill-equipped to deal with an increase in imported food and drugs.

FDA Deputy Commissioner Janet Woodcock, who has worked at the agency since 1986, said she and other FDA staff had been frustrated over the years with their limited funding and had worked to improve computer systems and oversight.

She said officials have been concerned about the increasing globalization of the food and drug supply and clinical trials, and the growing demands that would place on the FDA, for more than a decade.

"We have raised red flags. We have raised the alarms ... If various administrations and various Congresses have had higher priorities, that is not for us to question," she said.

DeLauro disagreed. She said Congress had "been assured that everything is fine" and had not heard FDA requests for major budget increases.

"I don't believe you have calculated what your needs are ... and made the request," she said.

Rep. Jack Kingston, a Georgia Republican, defended the FDA's work.