Former FDA leaders say staff cuts are killing the agency

Two former FDA leaders have taken to social media to say that the agency as we know it no longer exists.

Robert Califf, who stepped down from his post as Food and Drug Administration commissioner earlier this year, wrote on LinkedIn that the agency “is finished.” His pronouncement came as the first wave of firings at the agency went into effect. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. oversees the FDA and is firing 3,500 people from the … Read the rest

Supreme Court sidesteps Trump’s effort to remove watchdog agency head

Supreme Court sidesteps Trump’s effort to remove watchdog agency head

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The Supreme Court on Friday left in place for now an order by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., that instructed President Donald Trump to temporarily reinstate the head of an independent federal agency tasked with protecting whistleblowers from retaliation. The justices did not act on a request from the Trump administration to block the order by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, which had restored Hampton Dellinger as head of the Office of Special Counsel for 14 days, … Read the rest

Trump asks court to allow firing of watchdog agency official

Trump asks court to allow firing of watchdog agency official

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The Trump administration on Sunday asked the Supreme Court to block an order by a federal judge in Washington, D.C., that would require the president to temporarily reinstate the head of an independent agency tasked with protecting federal employees, and in particular whistleblowers, from retaliation. The order by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris told the justices, was an “unprecedented assault on the separation of powers that warrants immediate relief.”

Sunday’s filing was the … Read the rest

Firing of thousands of health agency employees will undermine food safety

— OPINION —

The cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services today make a mockery of the “Make America Healthy Again” slogan by arbitrarily decimating new staff in key public health agencies who might actually implement the slogan.  

The firings impact staff across HHS and affect thousands of people on “probationary” status.  

The mass firings will undermine the work of two of the agencies that solve and prevent foodborne outbreaks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the … Read the rest

U.S.- Immigration agency updates guidelines for officials’ treatment of Red Notices (part 2 of 3)

On September 29, 2023, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued new agency-wide guidelines regarding how its employees will address cases in which Red Notices and Diffusions.

The complete guidelines are found here, and the most relevant provisions (in my estimation) are listed in our last blog post.

In part one of this series, we referenced the fact that some of the new provisions would likely be more impactful in a practical sense than others. The provisions that are … Read the rest

Another federal agency challenges adverse ruling by 5th Circuit

Another federal agency challenges adverse ruling by 5th Circuit

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The Petitions of the Week column highlights a selection of cert petitions recently filed in the Supreme Court. A list of all petitions we’re watching is available here.

Next term the justices will hear the government’s appeal of a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit that found the funding mechanism for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau unconstitutional. This week, we highlight cert petitions that ask the court to consider, among other things, whether … Read the rest