Food Safety, FDA Hit Hard Under Government Shutdown
It’s Day 4 of the partial shutdown of the U.S. government, which resulted from Congress’ failure to enact the annual appropriations needed to keep the government in business. Food Safety Magazine spoke with Edgar Asebey-Birkholm, partner-in-charge of the FDA Practice Group at the Roetzel & Andress law firm, to get a big-picture perspective on how the shutdown will likely affect food safety.
Asebey-Birkholm said that under the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) “Contingency Staffing Plan for Operations in the Absence of Enacted Annual Appropriations”, which appears to have been implemented already, some 45% of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) almost 15,000 staff members are being furloughed. “No doubt the repercussions will be vast and far-reaching for FDA-regulated companies,” he said.