The ongoing destruction of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) through politically driven firings mirrors one of the most catastrophic regulatory failures in modern American history: the 1981 mass termination of air traffic controllers under President Reagan. Like the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) crisis—which left aviation safety systems crippled for nearly a decade—the FDA’s current Reduction in Force (RIF) has purged irreplaceable expertise, with devastating consequences for public health and institutional memory.

Targeted Firings of FDA Leadership (2025)

The FDA’s decimation began in January 2025 under HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with these key terminations:

• Dr. Peter Marks (CBER Director): Fired March 28 after refusing to dilute vaccine safety standards, stripping the agency of its foremost expert on biologics and pandemic response.
• Peter Stein (CDER Office of New Drugs): Terminated April 1 following his rejection of a demotion to a non-scientific role, eliminating critical oversight for rare disease therapies.
• Brian King (Center for Tobacco Products): Dismissed April 3 amid efforts to weaken vaping regulations, abandoning enforcement against youth-targeting tobacco firms.
• Vid Desai (Chief Information Officer): Axed April 5, sabotaging IT modernization crucial for drug reviews and food recall systems.

Expertise Loss: A Regulatory Time Bomb

The FDA’s crisis parallels the FAA’s 1981 collapse, when Reagan fired 11,345 unionized air traffic controllers. The FAA required five years to restore baseline staffing and 15 years to rebuild institutional knowledge—a delay that contributed to near-misses and fatal crashes like the 1986 Cerritos mid-air collision. Similarly, the FDA now faces:

1. Brain Drain Accelerating Regulatory Failure

• Vaccine review teams lost 40% of senior staff, risking delayed responses to avian flu outbreaks.
• Medical device approvals stalled after 50% of AI/ML experts were purged from CDRH.
• Food safety labs closed nationwide, mirroring the FAA’s loss of veteran controllers who managed complex airspace.

1. Training Collapse
   Reagan’s FAA scrambled to hire replacements with just 3 months’ training versus the former 3-year apprenticeship. At the FDA, new hires now receive 6 weeks of onboarding compared to the previous 18-month mentorship under experts —a recipe for oversight failures.
2. Erosion of Public Trust
   The FAA’s credibility took a decade to recover post-1981. The FDA’s transparency crisis—with FOIA response times stretching to 18 months and advisory committees disbanded—risks similar long-term distrust in drug safety and food inspections.

Repeating History’s Mistakes

The Reagan-era FAA firings cost $1.3 billion in today’s dollars and required emergency military staffing. The FDA’s RIF—projected to delay drug approvals by 2-3 years—could inflict far greater harm:

• Pharmaceutical Impact: 900+ drug applications now languish without senior reviewers, akin to the FAA’s 30% spike in air traffic errors post-1981.
• Food Safety: Shuttered labs mirror the FAA’s closed control towers, with state inspectors reporting a 45% drop in FDA support for outbreak investigations.
• Replacement Challenges: Like the FAA’s struggle to attract talent after 1981, the FDA’s politicized environment deters top scientists. Only 12% of open roles have qualified applicants, per April 2025 HHS data.

A Preventable Disaster Motivated by Bad Politics

The FDA’s expertise purge replicates the FAA’s darkest chapter—but with higher stakes. While the FAA’s recovery took 15 years, the FDA’s specialized work in gene therapies, pandemic preparedness, and AI-driven devices cannot withstand such a timeline without catastrophic public health consequences. Commissioner Marty Makary now presides over a skeleton crew ill-equipped to prevent the next opioid crisis, foodborne outbreak, or unsafe medical device. Without immediate congressional intervention to reverse these firings, Americans face a future where regulatory failures become routine, and trust in public health institutions joins aviation safety circa 1981 in the annals of preventable disasters.

• Sources:
• https://www.chiefhealthcareexecutive.com/view/fda-is-finished-after-mass-layoffs-ex-commissioner-says
• https://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Kessler-Written-Testimony.pdf
• https://www.clinicalleader.com/doc/how-hhs-budget-cuts-and-vaccine-hesitancy-threaten-clinical-trial-operations-and-what-leaders-can-do-0001
• https://biotechbriefings.gibsondunn.com/fda-in-flux-what-life-science-companies-should-expect-as-the-agency-undergoes-staffing-changes/
• https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/21/health/fda-trump-layoffs-device-and-food-safety.html
• https://www.just-food.com/news/fda-layoffs-described-as-devastating-as-mass-cuts-ensue-across-government-agencies/
• https://www.medpagetoday.com/washington-watch/fdageneral/115046
• https://natlawreview.com/article/hhs-job-cuts-fda-cdc-nih-and-cms-impacted-amidst-significant-restructurings
• https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/01/us/politics/trump-federal-layoffs-health-food.html
• https://themedicinemaker.com/business-regulation/is-the-fda-about-to-break
• https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/health/fda-layoffs-food-and-drug-safety-rfk-jr.html
• https://avac.org/blog/global-health-watch-issue10/
• https://ecommons.cornell.edu/items/665b994b-aeb7-4dd4-b1a3-09f7ba13bda8
• https://www.hhs.gov/about/budget/fy-2025-fda-contingency-staffing-plan/index.html

Add me to the list of people who are disheartened y the silence of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and the Biotechnology Innovation Organization to the cuts at the FDA. In an interest to write something that should be coming loud and clear from our industry groups, I give you…

The Impact of Recent FDA Layoffs on Agency Capacity and Public Health

The recent wave of layoffs at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), enacted as part of broader illegal federal workforce reductions under the Trump administration, has exacerbated long-standing staffing challenges at the agency. By targeting probationary employees—recent hires and those promoted within the past two years—the cuts have disproportionately affected early-career professionals with cutting-edge technical expertise, disrupted workforce development pipelines, and weakened oversight in critical areas such as medical device regulation, food safety, veterinary medicine, and emerging technologies. These reductions come at a time when the FDA is already grappling with recruitment challenges, inspection backlogs, and increasing demands for regulatory innovation.

Scope and Targets of the Layoffs

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., terminated approximately 5,200 probationary employees across its agencies in mid-February 2025, including hundreds at the FDA. While the agency’s drug review divisions were largely spared, layoffs hit staff in the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH), the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN), the Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), and the Center for Tobacco Products (CTP).

Medical Devices and Digital Health

In CDRH, at least 230 employees were dismissed, including specialists in artificial intelligence (AI) and digital health—fields undergoing rapid technological advancement. These roles are critical for evaluating AI-driven diagnostic tools, wearable devices, and software-as-a-medical-device (SaMD) products. The loss of early-career researchers and engineers threatens the FDA’s ability to keep pace with industry innovation, potentially delaying approvals for technologies like neural interfaces and AI-powered imaging systems.

Food Safety and Additives

CFSAN lost staff responsible for reviewing new food additives, colorings, and ingredients—a priority area for Kennedy, who has advocated for stricter chemical regulations. With approximately 2,000 uninspected food and drug facilities globally, the FDA’s inspection backlog is now likely to grow further, raising risks of contamination incidents similar to recent outbreaks linked to infant formula and baby food.

Veterinary Medicine

The Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) saw cuts to reviewers assessing the safety of pharmaceuticals for pets and livestock. These roles ensure that medications for animals are effective and that residues in products like milk and eggs remain safe for human consumption. Reductions here could delay approvals for veterinary drugs and weaken monitoring of antimicrobial resistance.

Exacerbating Existing Staffing Challenges

The FDA has historically struggled to recruit and retain specialized staff due to competition from higher-paying private-sector roles. The layoffs worsen these issues by destabilizing workforce development and eroding institutional knowledge.

Loss of Early-Career Talent

Probationary employees—often younger professionals with advanced degrees in fields like data science, bioengineering, and toxicology—represent the FDA’s pipeline for replacing retiring staff. By targeting this group, the cuts disrupt the “learning chain” essential for maintaining expertise. As Kenneth Kaitin, a Tufts University professor, noted: “You’re eliminating the learning chain of people who come into the agency. There’s a long learning curve, and you’re eliminating people at the early stage” (https://www.biopharmadive.com/news/fda-layoffs-trump-doge-hhs-cuts-impact/740499/).

Increased Workloads and Burnout

Remaining staff now face expanded responsibilities. For example, CDRH’s device reviewers, already managing a surge in AI and digital health submissions, must absorb the work of dismissed colleagues without additional support. Similarly, food safety inspectors—many of whom were hired post-pandemic to address backlogs—are now stretched thinner, increasing the likelihood of oversights.

Recruitment and Morale

The layoffs have demoralized the workforce and damaged the FDA’s reputation as a stable employer. As Mitch Zeller, former FDA tobacco director, stated: “The combined effect of what they’re trying to do is going to destroy the ability to recruit and retain talent” (https://www.startribune.com/trump-administration-cuts-reach-fda-employees-in-food-safety-medical-devices-and-tobacco-products/601223844). With hiring frozen under an executive order requiring agencies to replace only one employee for every four departures, the FDA cannot easily rebuild capacity.

The Training Bottleneck

The probationary period at the FDA (1–2 years for new hires) is designed to provide hands-on training in complex regulatory science. Dismissing employees during this phase wastes significant investments in onboarding and delays the development of proficiency.

Specialized Skill Development

Reviewers in areas like AI-driven medical devices or gene therapies require months of training to evaluate technical dossiers, assess clinical data, and understand regulatory precedents. Losing these employees resets progress, forcing the FDA to restart the training process once hiring resumes.

Cross-Departmental Collaboration

New hires often rotate through multiple divisions to build interdisciplinary expertise. For instance, a food additive reviewer might collaborate with toxicologists and epidemiologists to assess long-term health risks. Disrupting these rotations limits opportunities for knowledge-sharing, weakening the agency’s ability to address novel public health challenges.

Long-Term Consequences for Public Health

Slower Product Reviews

User fee-funded positions—which account for nearly half of the FDA’s $6.9 billion budget—were not spared from cuts. Since these roles are financed by industry to expedite reviews, their elimination could delay approvals for new drugs, devices, and food ingredients without reducing federal spending.

Weakened Outbreak Response

The FDA collaborates with the CDC to trace contamination sources during foodborne illness outbreaks. With fewer inspectors and scientists, the agency’s capacity to identify pathogens like Salmonella or Listeria will diminish, prolonging outbreaks and increasing hospitalization risks.

Erosion of Global Leadership

The FDA’s regulatory standards influence global markets. Slower reviews and outdated technical capacity could push companies to seek approvals in regions with more predictable oversight, such as the EU or Singapore, undermining U.S. competitiveness.

Conclusion

The FDA layoffs represent a shortsighted approach to government efficiency that prioritizes short-term spending cuts over long-term public health. By targeting probationary employees, the administration has exacerbated recruitment challenges, disrupted workforce development, and weakened oversight in critical areas. Rebuilding the FDA’s capacity will require reversing hiring freezes, increasing salaries to compete with the private sector, and safeguarding user fee funds from political interference. Without these steps, the agency’s ability to ensure food safety, evaluate emerging technologies, and respond to health crises will continue to erode—with dire consequences for consumers, industry, and global health security.

“The cuts at FDA will be terribly harmful for the American people. Indiscriminately firing people because they are new to the agency makes no sense.”
– Patti Zettler, former HHS Deputy General Counsel (https://www.biopharmadive.com/news/fda-layoffs-trump-doge-hhs-cuts-impact/740499/)