House debates bill on user fee to fund additional inspectors

WASHINGTON A new bill has been into the House of Representatives that would create a user fee on imported drug and food shipments to fund additional inspectors at the U.S. border, abroad, and in Food and Drug Administration laboratories.

The bill, H.R. 3610, would prevent the HHS secretary from closing or consolidating any of the 13 FDA field laboratories or any of the 20 FDA district offices.

The fee would not exceed $1,000 per line item and each drug and device products would have to include country of origin on their labeling,