House passes interim funding bill for FDA

WASHINGTON The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would fund the Food and Drug Administration as well as the rest of the federal government until Nov. 16th.

The bill, H.J. Res. 52, passed overwhelmingly by a vote of 414-4. The legislation will keep the government running on fiscal 2007 levels, but if had not been passed, the government would have been left without money to function on Oct.1, when the fiscal year ends.

The question now facing Congress is the budget for 2008. The president is asking Congress to cut spending levels, and so far the two sides combined are off by almost $200 million from what the White House is requesting.