Maxwell Frost Asks Former FDA Commissioner How Mass Layoffs Will Impact Food Inspections

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During a House Oversight Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) questioned Dr. David Kessler, the former Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, about the impact of mass layoffs.

Transcript

00:00I recognize Ms. Frost from Florida.

00:02Thank you, Mr. Chair.

00:03This past month, the FDA reported 15 food and drug recalls.

00:08That's about a recall every 48 hours.

00:11It was even higher in January and February.

00:13And many of these recalls were very serious.

00:15They were for things like food allergen, cross-contamination, cancer-causing arsenic,

00:21and lead, which can cause severe learning disabilities in children and miscarriages in adults.

00:26The past month also saw pet foods contaminated with bird flu.

00:31While these recalls save lives when folks are alerted in time,

00:35they also can cost working families time and money to replace recalled food.

00:40This year, tuna was recalled.

00:42That's about $3 per can down the drain.

00:44Prepared salads were recalled, another $5 each.

00:47Frozen dinners were recalled, $4, $5, $6 a serving.

00:51These numbers might seem small, but folks managing a family budget know how grocery costs add up

00:56and what a waste it is to throw out food.

00:59Dr. Kessler, how does the work of the FDA's labs and inspectors help catch problems

01:04before bad food hits the grocery stores?

01:08The laboratories are absolutely essential at that detection.

01:12Four FDA laboratories, two food labs, two medical product labs have been shut.

01:21Those recalls that are absolutely essential, the people who communicate about those recalls,

01:28the communication shops, have been gutted.

01:34Trump and Musk claimed that the mass layoffs at the VA and the Social Security Administration

01:40wouldn't have impacted the services, but we're seeing that's not true.

01:44Services for veterans, seniors across the entire country are getting worse.

01:47Wait times are at all-time highs.

01:49Now Trump and RFK Jr. are claiming that the mass layoffs at the FDA

01:53won't negatively impact food inspections.

01:56Dr. Kessler, how could mass layoffs at the FDA impact food inspections?

02:02It will have a real and demonstrable effect.

02:07Yes, the inspectors have not been touched, as of today, from what I can tell.

02:14But all their support, all their infrastructure is gone.

02:20So all those inspectors can't get the supplies they need to inspect.

02:25They have to do their own travel.

02:28Their travel cards are not working.

02:31I'm not sure what the strategy is.

02:34And what does this mean for Americans' vulnerability to serious food-borne illnesses?

02:41I fear that we are less safe today.

02:45You know, I wish that were not the case.

02:49But you can't take thousands of people out of the FDA

02:53and not understand that you're putting the American people at risk.

02:58You know, I'm one of the 33 million Americans living with potentially life-threatening food allergies.

03:06They have almost died, actually, because of an anaphylactic attack.

03:11Dr. Kessler, how could cuts of the FDA impact day-to-day safety of folks like me

03:16who live with serious food allergies?

03:18The people who communicate, who share that information, who share that risk information,

03:26the people who write the policies, that give the industry the guidance of what to put on the labels.

03:33They're not there anymore.

03:36Say we're lucky and these mass layoffs have no, you know, impact at the FDA

03:42with undercovering potential food-borne disease outbreaks before they spread.

03:47How will cuts to FDA staff impact the people who are still there,

03:51their ability to alert the public to the threat of allergen cross-contamination

03:55or an E. coli outbreak?

03:59I think the effect of these cuts, not only on the people who left,

04:05you know, and I'm hearing repeat stories about, you know, how these were done,

04:14when they were done, right?

04:17I mean, the real thoughtless, careless, almost mean aspects of how this information was communicated.

04:27But people are getting up, people who have enormous expertise,

04:34tens, decades of expertise on those kind of questions, on those allergies,

04:41you know, they're not staying at the energy.

04:45And recruitment, getting the best and the brightest,

04:48something that we all believed in, that we dedicated our careers

04:51to be able to go into these agencies and provide that kind of public service.

04:57What signal is that sending?

05:00We're losing generations of future public servants,

05:03and that concerns me greatly.

05:05Thank you. I yield back.

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