FDA hiring contractors to replace fired staff who supported safety inspections

WASHINGTON AP When Strength Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr communicated sweeping job cuts at his department last month he stated that safety inspectors who oversee U S foods and drugs wouldn t be impacted Those employees remain at the Food and Drug Administration but dozens of others who supported their work are gone The departed staffers include people who booked complex international trips to remote Indian pharmaceutical plants lab scientists who tested food samples for contamination and communication specialists who alerted the masses to urgent safety recalls The possible disruptions to FDA s already strained inspection force are so great that agency leaders in the last few days expedited plans to hire outside contractors to replace particular fired workers starting with those who arranged foreign tour according to staffers with direct knowledge of the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity Under FDA rules staffers are prohibited from publicly discussing sensitive agency matters without permission The FDA has been struggling for years to ramp up inspections after a wave of longtime staffers resigned or retired during COVID- Efforts to recruit new inspectors have been stymied by the demands of the job months of advance modest pay and grueling work under challenging overseas conditions If you put all this together even if you didn t have a reduction in the number of people who do the inspections you re reducing their promotion disclosed Howard Sklamberg an attorney who previously served as FDA s top inspection and enforcement official The natural impact is going to be fewer inspections Agency cites efficiency but union questions that The latest cuts include staffers in FDA s Office of Inspections and Investigations including all personnel who handled advance bookings visas safeguard and tech aid for inspectors working in Asia South America and other regions Termination letters stated that those jobs were unnecessary or virtually identical to others in the agency But that language is seemingly contradicted by plans to outsource the work to private companies The union representing FDA staff stated the decision is not only reckless it s inefficient costly and a notable vulnerability to human life An HHS spokesperson noted the cuts only impacted administrative positions and would make the agency more efficient and responsive They did not answer questions about whether contractors would be cheaper or more efficient Sklamberg explained the changes will likely lead to more departures particularly among experienced inspectors because of the surroundings that s been created and the difficulty of working there The Executive Accountability Office of late urged the FDA to develop new strategies for retaining inspectors noting that attrition has outpaced hiring for years As a end the FDA is still conducting fewer inspections this day than before the pandemic There is no official tally of jobs lost at FDA and multiple supervisors still don t how various of their employees have decided to take early retirement buyouts and other offers designed to shrink the workforce This could be devastating to the FDA in a way that they can t even control declared Susan Mayne of Yale University who previously directed the FDA s food center Job cuts include roles that endorsement RFK Jr s priorities In the weeks leading up to the latest layoffs senior FDA leaders prepared detailed plans for reducing staff without harming the agency s core functions according to two senior FDA staffers with direct knowledge of the work But those proposals were never requested by nor presented to staffers working for Elon Musk s DOGE who made the decisions Plenty of of the firings targeted positions and teams with the words plan and regulation in their titles Other cuts appeared to target offices in parts of the country deemed more expensive At least food scientists in FDA s San Francisco testing laboratory were cut according to an FDA staffer with direct knowledge of the campaign Rapidly testing food samples is critical to FDA s inspection and enforcement work allowing the agency to expeditiously shut down facilities producing tainted products and issue warning letters The accuracy of that work is also key when FDA lawyers need to defend their actions in court Even roles that would seemingly help Kennedy s stated goals such as stricter regulation of food additives and chemicals have been eliminated About scientists working in FDA s Division of Food Processing Science and Innovation in Chicago lost their jobs Their research included finding methods to identify and eliminate hazardous chemicals and reducing microplastics and other particles that can leach into packaged food FDA s food experts are grouped in different locations throughout the U S As they close these different sites you re just losing entire skillsets and areas of expertise Mayne stated Residents communications impacted by firings Those remaining at the agency are now trying to pick up specific of the critical tasks performed by their fired colleagues That includes notifying consumers industry and doctors about emerging safety issues including food recalls import alerts drug side effects and supply shortages For a great number of years that work was mainly done by more than a dozen people in the agency s media affairs office which was eliminated earlier this month That s left communications work to various staffers scattered throughout the agency s centers handling hundreds of other issues involving food drugs vaccines tobacco and other products Adding to the difficulty nearly all general statements must now go through the HHS press office It has only a handful of staffers most of of whom don t have any background in FDA issues There are certain things that used to function that are not functioning anymore reported one FDA staffer who spoke on condition of anonymity The Associated Press Robustness and Science Department receives patronage from the 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