Budget shell game

WASHINGTON - Increased funding for NIH and FDA spending plans contained in the Clinton administration's proposed fiscal 1999 budget are based on smoke and user fees and will be substantially modified by Congress before it takes effect next fall.

As in previous years, the Office of Management and Budget drafted an FDA budget that relies heavily on new user fees that Congress is virtually certain to reject. The budget unveiled last week includes $39 million in user fees for medical devices. The device industry has resisted user fees for more than five years and although the Clinton adminstration has included them in each of its budget requests, Congress has always rejected them...