Washington – Weeks after ordering everything Food and medication management employees Back to the officeThe agency is reversing the course, allowing some of its most precious employees to work remotely amid concerns that recent layoffs and resignations can endanger basic functions, such as approveing new medications.
An internal email obtained by Associated Press establishes that the FDA leadership is “allowing the review personnel and supervisors to resume teleworking” at least two days a week. The policy change was confirmed by three FDA employees who spoke with the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss internal agencies.
The message was sent on Tuesday to some of the hundreds of FDA drug reviewers. The employees said that a policy similar to the reviewers that handle vaccines, biotechnological drugs, medical devices and tobacco products were communicated, although not always in writing.
It is the last example of the chaotic approach of the Trump administration for Federal Health Work Force ReviewThat has included shotsA fight for hire some employeesand then additional layoffs last week of an estimate of 3,400 employees, or more than 15% of the agency’s workforce. When FDA employees were called back to the headquarters of the Maryland agency last month, they faced overflowing parking lots, offices full of people and broken or missing supplies.
A spokeswoman Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. This administration is returning to “pre-covid teleworking arrangements for reviewers, whose reading and writing work output is tracked in 15-minute increases to guarantee productivity and responsibility.”
While many agencies changed to teleworking during the pandemic, the FDA began adopting the practice almost two decades before. Flexibility was seen as a competitive advantage to recruit employees that can often gain more work in the industry.
The cuts last week included complete offices focused on the policies and regulations of the FDA, most communication staff and agency teams that support inspectors and food researchers. Senior officials supervising tobaccoNew drugs, vaccines and other products have also been fired or forced to resign. Employees have described the rank employees that are “poured” from the agency.
The former FDA Commissioner, Dr. David Kessler, described the “devastating, random, thoughtless and chaotic” cuts during an audience at the house on Wednesday.
When Kennedy announced plans to eliminate 10,000 employees of the Federal Health Force, he said that FDA medical reviewers and security inspectors would not be affected.
In February, HHS was forced to remember some test employees who were fired, including hundreds of FDA medical reviewers, whose salaries are largely financed by industry fees, not federal dollars.
But last week’s cuts combined with resignations and retirements have increased a new threat: that FDA financing could fall so low that it cuts a long -standing system in which companies help finance much of the agency’s operations.
Almost half of the budget of almost $ 7 billion of the FDA comes from the rates collected from drugs, devices and tobacco. The agency uses money to hire thousands of additional employees to quickly and efficiently review new products. For example, about 70% of the FDA drug program is financed with TAR agreements to user’s, which must be re -authorized by Congress every five years.
But the agreements stipulate that if the FDA federal financing falls below the established levels, companies are no longer required to pay rates and, in some cases, they can recover their money. The threshold requirements are designed to ensure that Congress continues to financing the FDA, instead of depending completely on the private sector.
It is assumed that the FDA and industry groups will begin negotiations at the end of this year to renew several user tasks, including drugs and devices.
“I do not believe that the agency or the regulated industry can afford the ‘user rates’ not to be re -authorized,” said Michael Gaba, a lawyer who advises companies regulated by the FDA.
Whatever the reasoning behind the teleworking shift, former government officials say it is a sign that recently confirmed FDA Commissioner Marty Makary is trying to retain and rebuild staff and resources. Makary made his first appearance at the FDA headquarters last Wednesday, one day after the mass dismissals. According to the memo obtained by the AP, Makary signed on Telleork.
“Dr. Makary needs to rebuild equipment and restart the productivity engine lost in weeks of labor insecurity, uncertainty and shortage of team members,” said Steven Grossman, a former HHS official. “Converting travel time into working time is a great first step to achieve both.”
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