Why is Congress trying to weaken the FDA's oversight of dangerous drugs?

The drug industry blames the Food and Drug Administration for driving up the research and development costs of new drugs, stifling innovation, and interfering with the sainted mandate to bring cures to suffering medical patients.

The nation's public research agencies, especially the National Institutes of Health, complain they're starved for money.

Put those together, and you get the elements of what drug industry watchdog Ed Silverman calls a "grand bargain": Congress will step up funding for the NIH in return for a loosening of regulatory standards at the FDA. Silverman thinks this is an offer the American public should refuse. He's right.

Nevertheless, a deal is in the making on Capitol Hill. Last month, Senate Health Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) announced "progress" on stepping up funding for NIH initiatives on cancer research and other important goals. He tied that funding implicitly to passage of a version of a 2015 House bill that would provide $8.8 billion for the NIH but also loosened the FDA's reins on the drug industry.

But as many experts have observed since the House passage, increasing funds for the...