WASHINGTON (AP) — When Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced sweeping job cuts at his department last month, he said 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 public to urgent safety recalls.
The potential disruptions to FDA’s already strained inspection force are so great that agency leaders recently expedited plans to hire outside contractors to replace some fired workers, starting with those who arranged foreign travel, 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-19. Efforts to recruit new inspectors have been stymied by the demands of the job: months of travel, 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 support,” said Howard Sklamberg, an attorney who previously served as FDA's top inspection and enforcement official. “The natural result is going to be fewer inspections.”
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary told podcaster Megyn Kelly in an episode posted Thursday that the cuts were to communications, legislative affairs and tech support positions.
“There were no cuts to scientific reviewers or inspectors or law enforcement at the FDA and my goal is to make sure that all of those people have the resources they need to do their job well,” Makary said.
Agency cites efficiency, but union questions that
The latest cuts include 170 staffers in FDA’s Office of Inspections and Investigations, including all personnel who handled travel bookings, visas and security 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 said the decision “is not only reckless, it’s inefficient, costly and a significant risk to human life.”
An HHS spokesperson said 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 said the changes will likely lead to more departures, particularly among experienced inspectors, “because of the environment that’s been created and the difficulty of working there.”
The Government Accountability Office recently urged the FDA to develop new strategies for retaining inspectors, noting that attrition has outpaced hiring for years. As a result, the FDA is still conducting 36% fewer inspections today than before the pandemic.
There is no official tally of jobs lost at FDA and many supervisors still don't how many 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,” said Susan Mayne of Yale University, who previously directed the FDA’s food center.
Job cuts include roles that support 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.
Many of the firings targeted positions and teams with the words “policy” and “regulation,” in their titles. Other cuts appeared to target offices in parts of the country deemed more expensive.
At least 10 food scientists in FDA’s San Francisco testing laboratory were cut, according to an FDA staffer with direct knowledge of the program.
Rapidly testing food samples is critical to FDA’s inspection and enforcement work, allowing the agency to quickly 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 support Kennedy’s stated goals — such as stricter regulation of food additives and chemicals — have been eliminated.
About 15 scientists working in FDA’s Division of Food Processing Science and Technology in Chicago lost their jobs. Their research included finding ways 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 said.
Public communications impacted by firings
Those remaining at the agency are now trying to pick up some 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 many 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 public statements must now go through the HHS press office. It has only a handful of staffers, most of whom don’t have any background in FDA issues.
“There are certain things that used to function that are not functioning anymore,” said one FDA staffer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
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Matthew Perrone, The Associated Press
