When the Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced mass job cuts at his department last month, he said safety inspectors overseeing U.S. foods and drugs wouldn’t be impacted. Those responsible for those tasks remained employed, but many if not all of their support system/employees were cut. Logistics and people who would help plan and make their jobs doable would be cut. Complicating their job and making it much harder and requiring more to do.
This loss in employees has caused the department to struggle massively. The FDA was looking for ways to combat this growing issue. The solution would be to put out ads to hire contractors. These contractors would be expected to replace the fired employees. Replacing the employees with outside contractors.
This draws into question why fire all those people, as these contracts are basically the same thing, but at arguably steeper prices. They could also prove to be less reliable and lead to more issues in the future. Due to the potential controversy this could cause, employees are being forced to be silent on the matter. Employees are prohibited from discussing the matter.
This stacks on more issues for an already struggling FDA, which has been suffering since the end of the COVID-19 lockdowns. The lockdowns resulted in many leaving or retiring from the FDA. The FDA has been struggling for years to rebuild its staff and carry out its duties. People inside the company state that while the fired employees might not result in fewer people able to do inspections, it hinders their ability to do so, resulting in the same number of inspections overall.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17kLeN0MiN5yiPUldrRdfMeDwBQoRa1o215POTu-kgWI/edit?usp=sharing