Federal Hiring Freeze May Endanger FDA User Fee Programs

Energy and Commerce Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Health Subcommittee Ranking Member Gene Green (D-TX), and Oversight & Investigations Subcommittee Ranking Member Diana DeGette (D-CO) sent a letter to President Trump today expressing concerns over the impact of the federal hiring freeze on the user fee programs at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

"We urge you to consider carefully how instituting a federal hiring freeze will affect FDA. We would remind the Administration that FDA is tasked with approving novel drugs and medical devices to improve how we prevent and treat medical conditions, as well as approving generic drugs that provide critical competition to the market and affordable access to medications for families," the members wrote in the letter. "Hamstringing the ability of our most critical public health agency to hire the personnel needed will hamper FDA's ability to fulfill its mission and meet the performance metrics, including timelines for medical product reviews and approvals, negotiated with industry under the user fee agreements."

The three Democratic Committee leaders wrote that FDA plays a key role in supporting innovation in the United States. The agency's drug review program is recognized worldwide as the gold standard, and in recent years FDA has not only approved more new drugs than its European counterparts, but it has also done so more quickly. The work done by FDA and its employees is also critical to protecting the health and safety of our country, work that is now endangered by the recent memorandum released instituting a blanket federal hiring freeze.

Given the uncertainty of the hiring freeze's impact on FDA, the letter requests answers to several key questions including:

• What criteria will the Administration use to determine whether or not vacancies at FDA would be eligible for an exemption as outlined in the memorandum?
• Does federal hiring use private user fee revenues subject to the hiring freeze outlined in the memorandum?
• Is the hiring authority provided to FDA under the 21st Century Cures Act subject to the hiring freeze outlined in the memorandum?

The letter goes on to note that the U.S. Government Accountability Office has found that hiring freezes are not effective, disrupt agency operations, and can increase costs to the federal government.

A copy of the letter is available here.

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