NTEU Views on the FY 2002 FDA Budget

4/10/2001

U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and Related Agencies

Chairman Bonilla, Ranking Member Kaptur, and distinguished members of this Subcommittee, my name is Colleen Kelley and I am the National President of the National Treasury Employees Union. NTEU represents more than l55,000 federal employees across the federal government, including the employees who work at the Food and Drug Administration. I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to present testimony on behalf of these dedicated men and women who work to ensure the safety of our food, drugs, cosmetics, and medical devices.

Without question, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is one of the most important agencies in our government. The FDA regulates more than $1 trillion worth of products that account for about 25 cents out of every dollar of American consumer spending. The FDA is staffed with experts in an extraordinary range of fields. Microbiologists, chemists, consumer safety officers, and others are working around the clock testing, approving, and regulating new drugs, robotics, and other medical devices, that will not only improve the quality of life for millions of Americans, but in many cases actually save lives. They are working to ensure the food we eat is safe and free of disease-causing contaminants. They approve new food products, food additives, and dietary supplements, and work to ensure these new products pose no threat to our health.

FDA employees who work in the field offices and laboratories located throughout the country have developed valuable working relationships with top scientists, health officials, and local industries. These employees are on the front lines in protecting consumers from mislabeled foods, food borne diseases, defective medical devices, or unsafe cosmetics or drugs. And they work very closely with Customs, USDA, and others at our borders and ports, to inspect and test imported foods and drugs.

While FDA employees continue to respond to the call of the American people for ensuring our food supply is safe and more effective drugs and medical products are brought to consumers more quickly, the demands placed on the FDA workforce have increased significantly over the past decade, and will continue to grow. Research dollars invested by the pharmaceutical and food industries have been skyrocketing. And since the implementation of NAFTA, GATT, and other international trade agreements, there has been a dramatic increase in the quantity and complexity of imports of FDA-regulated products across our borders and into our ports. But while there are more products on the market to regulate, more imports of food and drugs to inspect, and more new product applications to approve, the FDA is being given fewer resources. The workload has increased while the budget for the FDA has remained flat.

President Bush’s budget for the FDA does not provide enough funding for staffing and resources for the agency to be able to respond to the constantly changing and more complex public health threats facing our nation. Last year, Congress approved $1.217 billion for salaries and expenses at the FDA. Unfortunately, the amount provided was $89 million less than what President Clinton requested for the FDA. Meanwhile, Congress continued with its plans to double the NIH budget over the next five years. $20.3 billion was provided for NIH for FY 2001, an increase of $1.5 billion over the President’s request, and $2.5 billion more than the previous year. And the pharmaceutical industry and academic community invested billions more in medical research.

If we want Americans to be able to reap the benefits as quickly as possible from medical breakthroughs resulting from our investments in medical research, then President Bush and Congress must ensure the FDA – the agency charged with regulating these new drugs and medical technologies – receives, at a minimum, funding increases proportionate to the increases for the NIH. NTEU is hopeful that President Bush and Congress will work to provide the FDA with the staffing and resources necessary to protect and improve the health of the American public. Funding shortfalls in the future will significantly hamper FDA’s ability to identify and respond to current health threats, and take pro-active measures to approve drugs and other products aimed at preventing future health problems.

I also want to highlight the need for Congress to pay special attention to not only maintain, but to expand, the current FDA laboratory and field structure. While most of the FDA’s workforce is employed in the Washington, DC region, almost a third of the workforce is located outside of the Beltway. The FDA is beginning to implement a plan to close many of its field laboratories and consolidate them into a handful of locations. Shutting down most of these FDA labs across the country will lead to delays in getting potentially harmful market products to FDA laboratories for sampling and analysis. Furthermore, with increased trade into, and out of, our airports and seaports, and the growth of food and drug industries, FDA’s lab infrastructure – both in terms of people and technology – is that much more critical for consumers and for industry.

NTEU also has serious misgivings about FDA plans to change its program of voluntary Saturday work for employees in the field performing laboratory or lab﷓related functions to make such work mandatory. The agency is proposing this despite the fact that, around the country, it has encountered virtually no problems using its present program to secure volunteers for weekend work. Employees who work at the FDA laboratory understand that FDA needs to have its laboratories staffed on Saturdays, and we would be pleased to work with the agency to fix any real or perceived problems in the voluntary weekend work program. However, making weekend work mandatory for FDA employees – many of whom have worked Monday through Friday schedules for more than twenty years – is the wrong approach.

The FDA proposals to close laboratories and force employees to dramatically change their work and family schedules are not only unnecessary, they are unwise. NTEU believes these plans are shortsighted and will force hundreds of experienced professionals to leave the agency at a time when competition for their services by private sector companies is intense. The American public cannot afford the risk of losing these valuable resources.

It is ironic that at a time when many in Congress are increasingly concerned about the government’s inability to retain and recruit highly qualified individuals into public service, FDA would seek to roll the dice with their own workforce. As it stands now, the FDA is struggling to retain and recruit qualified individuals to serve this Agency. And it has been widely documented that the federal government is expected to lose nearly half of our experienced scientists in the next four years due to retirement. The FDA can only continue to maintain its competence and credibility by strengthening the agency’s science base, not tearing it apart. With adequate funding for staffing and equipment, it would be NTEU’s hope that FDA would abandon these risky plans. Therefore, it is incumbent upon the President and Congress to provide FDA with the resources necessary to retain those currently employed at the FDA and recruit more qualified individuals to ensure an efficient and effective FDA in the future.

I am very proud of the work the men and women at the FDA do to protect consumers and improve our public health. Yet, our global leadership in this area will be jeopardized if we do not provide the FDA with the staffing and tools required to carry out its mission. The American people rightly demand and expect that their food, drugs, cosmetics, and medical devices are safe – and they deserve no less.

Whether it is testing a new vaccine, approving the application for a new dialysis machine, or increasing the safety of our food supply by identifying deadly food pathogens, the men and women at the FDA are working for you, working for America. Congress needs to approve an FDA budget that works for them.