{"id":38590,"date":"2025-02-16T17:51:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-16T23:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=38590"},"modified":"2025-02-16T21:49:12","modified_gmt":"2025-02-17T03:49:12","slug":"trump-cuts-reach-fda-workers-focused-on-food-safety-and-medical-devices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=38590","title":{"rendered":"Trump cuts reach FDA workers focused on food safety and medical devices"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Positions cut also appeared to focus on agency\u2019s centers for tobacco products, including oversight of e-cigarettes<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Trump administration\u2019s effort to slash the size of the federal workforce reached the Food and Drug Administration this weekend, as recently hired employees who review the safety of food ingredients, medical devices and other products were fired.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Probationary employees across the FDA received notices on Saturday evening that their jobs were being eliminated, according to three FDA staffers who spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The total number of positions eliminated was not clear on Sunday, but the firings appeared to focus on employees in the agency\u2019s centers for food, medical devices and tobacco products \u2013 which includes oversight of electronic cigarettes. It was not clear whether FDA employees who review drugs were exempted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday, the US Department of Health<\/a> and Human Services announced plans to fire 5,200 probationary employees across its agencies, which include the National Institutes of Health, the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People who spoke with the AP on condition of anonymity on Friday said the number of probationary employees to be laid off at the CDC would total nearly 1,300. But as of early Sunday afternoon, about 700 people had received notices, according to three people who spoke on condition on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. They said none of the CDC layoffs affected the doctors and researchers who track diseases in what\u2019s known as the Epidemic Intelligence Service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FDA is headquartered in the Maryland<\/a> suburbs outside Washington DC and employs nearly 20,000 people. It\u2019s long been a target of newly sworn-in health secretary Robert Kennedy Jr, who last year accused the agency of waging a \u201cwar on public health\u201d for not approving unproven treatments such as psychedelics, stem cells and chelation therapy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kennedy also has called for eliminating thousands of chemicals and colorings from US foods. But the cuts at FDA include staffers responsible for reviewing the safety of new food additives and ingredients, according to an FDA staffer familiar with the firings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An HHS spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearly half of the FDA\u2019s $6.9bn budget comes from fees paid by companies the agency regulates, including drug and medical device makers, which allows the agency to hire extra scientists to swiftly review products. Eliminating those positions will not reduce government spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A former FDA official said cutting recent hires could backfire, eliminating staffers who tend to be younger and have more up-to-date technical skills. The FDA\u2019s workforce skews toward older workers who have spent one or two decades at the agency, and the Government Accountability Office noted in 2022 that the FDA \u201chas historically faced challenges in recruiting and retaining\u201d staff due to better money in the private sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou want to bring in new blood,\u201d said Peter Pitts, a former FDA associate commissioner under George W Bush. \u201cYou want people with new ideas, greater enthusiasm and the latest thinking in terms of technology.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mitch Zeller, former FDA director for tobacco, said the firings are a way to \u201cdemoralize and undermine the spirit of the federal workforce\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe combined effect of what they\u2019re trying to do is going to destroy the ability to recruit and retain talent,\u201d Zeller said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FDA\u2019s inspection force has been particularly strained in recent years after a wave of departures during the Covid-19 pandemic, and many of the agency\u2019s current inspectors are recent hires. It was not immediately clear whether those employees were exempted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FDA inspectors are responsible for overseeing thousands of food, drug, tobacco and medical device facilities worldwide, though the AP reported last year that the agency faced a backlog of roughly 2,000 uninspected drug facilities that hadn\u2019t been visited since before the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agency\u2019s inspection force have also been criticized for not moving faster to catch recent problems involving infant formula, baby food and eyedrops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

theguardian<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Positions cut also appeared to focus on agency\u2019s centers for tobacco products, including oversight of e-cigarettes The Trump administration\u2019s effort to slash the size of the federal workforce reached the Food and Drug Administration this weekend, as recently hired employees who review the safety of food ingredients, medical devices and other products were fired. Probationary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":38591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1152],"tags":[1973,3043,8963,32372,1230,1246],"class_list":["post-38590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humanrights","tag-cut","tag-fda","tag-food-safety","tag-medical-devices","tag-trump","tag-wages"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38590"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38592,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38590\/revisions\/38592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}