FDA hiring contractors to replace fired staff who supported safety
inspections
[April 21, 2025]
By MATTHEW PERRONE
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.
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration building behind FDA logos at a
bus stop on the agency's campus in Silver Spring, Md, Thursday, Aug.
2, 2018. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
 “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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