Senior Food and Drug Administration leaders plan to cut the number of routine food and drug tests the agency has conducted due to sharp layoffs in support staff this week, multiple officials said.
About 170 workers were cut from the FDA's inspection and investigation office, two federal health officials who were not authorized to speak publicly.
The Ministry of Health and Human Services said Layoffs order By Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,some 10,000 workers let go From the department, the FDA inspectors will not be directly cut. However, in a meeting between federal health officials, the remaining leaders of the agency struggled to deal with the major delays and disruptions caused by the losses of administrative and administrative staff that supported the agency’s inspectors.
A HHS spokesman said in a statement: “As part of the HHS transformation plan, these administrative functions are being simplified to make the agency more effective and responsive.
The Office of Inspection and Investigation will now require the use of FDA's drugs, equipment and food One official said it will reposition the center of workload for the rest of the year. This would mean trimming routine “surveillance inspections” to perform more urgent tasks, like inspections of agencies regarding safety risks or subsequent visits to ensure drugmakers or food producers have previously violated the law, the official said.
One of the biggest direct effects on agency inspectors is the elimination of the office’s travel agency department, an official said. The team's work ranges from booking flights to coordination with the State Council to inspecting translators needed for drugmakers and food producers abroad.
“As of yesterday, all frontline investigators will now spend a lot of time dealing with their own travel and related administrative requirements, rather than spending time in companies to ensure U.S. consumers are protected,” an FDA official told CBS News.
An unannounced pilot program for foreign inspections has also been suspended due to the cuts in layoffs, an official said, due to the loss of staff, a task that quickly secures translators around the world.
The FDA has long struggled to achieve its own inspection target, which has worsened by the backlog created during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a January report from the Government Accountability Office, the FDA is facing a swollen food safety checklist that is expected to hit the deadline authorized by Congress as they work to hire and retain qualified inspectors.
While current inspections are still ongoing, several FDA officials said the cuts could lead to delays caused by other challenges the Trump administration has put in place in recent months.
In one example, multiple officials said on-site operations were restricted by new government-wide limits on spending cards. Any expenditure above this limit requires a tedious approval process.
Inspectors have been asked to conduct inspections one month in advance due to delays caused by spending limits.
