A draft budget proposal indicates that the Department of Health and Human Services is facing substantial funding cuts, including an estimated 18.6 percent reduction in the Food and Drug Administration’s annual budget.
Due to these proposed budget cuts, the FDA plans to suspend a key quality control initiative within its food testing laboratories. The agency’s Food Emergency Response Network Proficiency Testing Program, which oversees the consistency and accuracy of testing across approximately 170 labs, will be put on hold. These labs are responsible for detecting pathogens and contaminants in food in order to prevent foodborne illnesses.
In addition, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has announced plans to eliminate 3,500 FDA positions as part of the broader budget cuts.
“Unfortunately, significant reductions in force, including a key quality assurance officer, an analytical chemist, and two microbiologists at FDA’s Human Food Program Moffett Center have an immediate and significant impact on the Food Emergency Response Network Proficiency Testing Program,” says the email sent on Tuesday from FERN’s National Program Office.
According to the same email, the program will be suspended at least through Sept. 30. This pause will prevent the agency from conducting scheduled quality control testing for substances such as the parasite Cyclospora in spinach and the pesticide glyphosate in barley, among other assessments.
Following disruptions in drug and food safety operations caused by the layoffs, the FDA has reversed some of the job cuts. Scientists working in drug safety laboratories in Puerto Rico and Detroit, as well as food safety labs in Chicago and San Francisco, have been notified they will be reinstated. Additionally, a number of support staff who assist FDA inspectors are being brought back.
FDA food safety laboratories are also being reinstated. A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services attributed the errors in the initial round of layoffs to faulty data from the agency’s “siloed HR divisions.”
“This is exactly why HHS is reorganizing its administrative functions to streamline operations and fix the broken systems left to us by the Biden Administration. Streamlining this into one operation will allow for enhanced data integrity and coordination,” the spokesperson said.